From Hate to Love
by Kapootya
Summary: Itachi's story before the Uchiha massacre. He has to kill his one true love. This is before/during him becoming known as a missing nin in Konoha. One shot has turned into a back-story of Itachi's childhood till the massacre.
1. From Hate to Love

_One day. _

That was all that was left until Itachi Uchiha was condemned to an eternity of hell by Satan himself.

_This time tomorrow night…my clan will be dead. _

His eyes hardened as he looked up at the nearly full moon. The sky sparkled with hundreds of beautiful stars that kept the white virginal moon company. They all looked down at Itachi...seeing him for what he really was and yet they offered him no comfort or remorse. The open sky felt suffocating and Itachi could not find anything that offered him freedom. He was chained and doomed for now and for the rest of his life. There was no future and the present was about to turn bitter.

He already drowned his best friend, and the Mangekyo Sharingan was his. It was just a cold fact now. His best friend was dead. There would no longer be any new memories…the end. What was done, could never be undone. Even if it could, the decision was clear and in his mind, his wrong actions were made right by the results they would bring.

He tossed a pebble that laid on the banister of the bridge and into the river.

_Plop. _

Itachi watched the ripples that formed in the calm water under the little wooden bridge. His action had disturbed the river...his existence created ripples.

_One day. _

Everything he worked for, everything he ever loved would be taken away from him…by his own doing.

He would have nothing.

_Because the Konoha Village is more important_, he justified.

Killing to obtain power was the most unforgivable sin in his eyes. And yet, that sin had become his eyes.

Itachi could still see Shisui's helpless body struggle as he drowned him. He remembered Shisui's raven black hair floating in the water like spider webs as his fingers tightened around his neck. He had been too stunned to truly fight back and had let Itachi kill him. Shisui could have easily flickered out of the situation, but he didn't. He let Itachi carry an unjustifiable murder and the shame for the rest of his life.

There was no honor in Itachi's actions and no Village Elder would ever be able to clear his conscious. No rhetoric, no fancy words, no false promises could ever make him feel right again.

Shisui serious face and small eyes would forever haunt Itachi and he knew it. But how could he explain to Shisui that he was ordered by the counsel of Konoha to kill his best friend and clan? How does anyone say that?

How does one allow that?

There was no excuse for a murder like that.

Itachi tossed another small rock into the water.

_Plop. _

He felt as though he was only good at making ripples.

Ripples of blood.

He hated the fact that his best friend didn't fight back. Itachi wished Shisui would have given him a permanent and painful scar, damaged him somehow… even killed him….anything…besides accept it. The acceptance in Shisui's eyes stung more than any sword would ever.

Itachi desperately wished his best friend could have killed him so he wouldn't have to kill his clan...his family...his love.

A single tear fell from Itachi's deep dark eyes as he looked up at the moon.

_You could have killed me Shisui…you could have. _

_I wouldn't have stopped you. _

"Itacccccchi!" A high pitch girl voice shouted from the roof of a building barely thirty meters away from him.

_And I have to kill you too…_

He looked up over his shoulder at the blue haired girl waving to him. She was in her ANBU uniform, her tiger mask was placed at the side of her face as she jumped off the building gracefully and skipped towards him like a six year old skipping through a meadow.

"Hello Michi," Itachi greeted coolly as he turned and leaned against the bridge's railing, pushing all his real emotions to the side. She didn't need to see how he was suffering.

Michi appeared before him within a matter of seconds and wrapped her arms tightly around him his neck. "Mmmm. I've missed you." She said burying her face into his strong chest as she embraced him.

"Someone could see," Itachi whispered wrapping his arms around her small little frame.

"That someone can go shove it," she replied looking up at him.

Her bright aqua colored innocent eyes sparkled in the moonlight with a passion that he didn't deserve. He ran his hands through her long blue colored hair; he could tell from the even waves that she had just unbraided it.

"Miss me?" She asked stepping on his feet as she kept her arms hanging lazily around his shoulders. She was about a foot shorter than him and hated it, so she would step on his feet or go on her tippy toes every time she could. Itachi never complained about it, only teased her about it if she started getting on his nerves. By tomorrow, no one would step on his toes ever again.

"Of course," Itachi smiled earnestly; knowing that it would be one of his last real smiles.

"Come on. Let's go back to my apartment," she said tugging Itachi along.

He changed his smile to a smirk, "You are so annoying."

"And you are a cocky arrogant jackass, but at least I'm not complaining," Michi replied returning a smirk that mimicked his own.

He loved her…Loved her more than the word love could ever describe.

And he would have to kill her and her whole family in less than twenty four hours.

His heart broke with every step they took through the village.

All that would remain of her would be the memories…there would be nothing else. Nothing else to cling on to...just a **once upon a time**. It would be like a fairy tale, with imaginary characters and unbelievable romances, but there wouldn't be a happily ever after. Not without her.

He remembered the first time they met; it was in the academy when she had managed to trip over herself in the hallway and he caught her due to his outstanding reflexes.

And she punched him.

_"What the fuck? What did you do that for?" Itachi shouted defensively, rubbing his cheek as Michi stepped away from him, fixing her pigtails._

_"I'd rather fall than ever be caught by you." She deadpanned and walked away._

He remembered their first activity together – Kunai practice. They tried to kill each other ninety percent of the time they were together from then on. They would break into fights all the time, he remembered the time they both summoned fire dragons at each other – nearly burning the whole school down. She was the reason he even got detention for unruly behavior.

Itachi chuckled at the memory and Michi looked at him curiously.

"Remember the first time you gave me detention?"

"I did not give you detention. You got it yourself," she answered smoothly as she took his hand into hers.

"Really now?" Itachi asked sarcastically.

"Of course. If you would have just let me beat you to a bloody pulp then you wouldn't have gotten detention."

"As if you could."

"Excuse me, is that a challenge?" Michi replied with a grin as she let go of his hand and got into her fighting stance, "Bring it big boy."

In less than a blink of an eye, Itachi had Michi pressed up against the cold hard wall with her hands being held over her head and his lips pressed roughly against hers.

She kissed him back just as roughly, with need, desire, and love laced in every movement.

"God…" Itachi gasped breaking the kiss, "I love you," he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers; wishing to somehow be able to transfer his knowledge onto her so she could take control of the situation and figure out a way to keep everyone alive. She was always good at keeping him from becoming dead on the inside.

"Grossssss," she said pushing him away playfully, "you're being mushy."

"What I can't be mushy?" He questioned.

"Dear god no. Itachi…mushy? You must be an evil clone," she said with a sly grin, "I must destroy you…by…tickling you!" Michi yelled, coming after Itachi while wiggling her fingers. He quickly caught her and twisted her hands around, placing them both behind her. In retaliation she turned her body to the side, allowing him to dislocate her shoulder as she slammed him into the wall she was previously against. Her shoulder slid back into place as she pinned his hands at his side. Her main trait as a shinobi was the ability to move all her joints in every way that pleased her. She was as flexible as flexible could get which was helpful in evading…and fucking. She pressed herself against his body as she looked lustfully into his eyes.

"I love you too," she whispered centimeters away from his lips.

"Shut up and kiss me," he spoke with eagerness ringing in his voice and she didn't need to be told twice.

They kissed as though they would never kiss again, or kissed as if they haven't kissed in years...neither knew which one it was. It finally ended when the need for oxygen became too great.

"You love being the one in charge, don't you?" Itachi asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Mmmm, only because you hate it," she answered as she seemed to look over every aspect of his face with a vivid curiosity.

"What are you doing?" Itachi asked pretending to sound annoyed.

"Memorizing your face. I heard you have a big mission to go on tomorrow night. Figures, I come back and they make you leave. I think the village elders hate me. It's been happening for the past two months. Damn jackasses."

"Of course, they're doing it because they hate you," he agreed with her sarcastically, even though he knew that they were doing so on purpose. It was best for him to have the least amount of contact with her possible.

"And my happiness."

"I'm your happiness?" Itachi asked as he tried to keep the guilt from his voice. He usually wasn't so sappy or emotional around Michi, but he usually wasn't assigned to kill people he cared for either.

"Psha, you wish," the girl replied rolling her eyes and pushing herself off him.

"How the hell does your team put up with you?" Itachi asked leaning away from the wall as they both resumed walking down the empty streets together.

"They don't have a choice," she said with a smirk as they intertwined their fingers once more. "Oh! You won't believe what happened. I went on a mission with what's-his-face. The guy with the blue beard. He's such a fuck tard. Anyway, so when our team assembled me and him were there first. Blue-beard asked me if I was the medic for the team. I, of course, replied no. Then he shrugged and had the guts to say that girls are useless as ninjas. Can you believe it?"

"Did you break every bone in his body?" Itachi asked tugging her closer to him. Savoring every moment with her and committing every annoy action of hers to memory. He hated the way she shuffled her feet when she walked, and the way she always spoke in run on sentences – barely caring about grammar. He hated her hasty judgment and foul mouth and especially her inability of controlling her emotions.

She did everything wrong…but everything she did was so right for him.

"No! But I should have. I only shot some fireballs at him."

"Oh, only that?" He raised his eyebrow to compliment his lack of belief in his voice.

"And broke his arm."

"That a girl," Itachi smiled placing a kiss on top of her head.

"A Medic nurse healed him though so he still had to come along. What a skank."

"The medic or him?"

"Him."

"Skanks usually for girls."

"I've called you a skank and slut before," she replied innocently as they turned the corner.

Itachi let that comment slide, "Was the mission easy?"

"Yeap, just needed to destroy some bodies," Michi answered with a shrug. He knew she hated those missions, but she was excellent at locating chakra patterns and hunting down enemies. She just hated to kill them. The blue haired girl was one of the best tracking ninjas of the village and often went on missing nins hunts. But Michi, being Michi, still begged Itachi to play hide-n-seek with her and the kids in the playground every weekend they were in Konoha together. She would say it was more a challenge hunting them...

"I have great news," she began with a smile looking up at the midnight sky as a gust of wind blew her hair every which way.

"Oh?"

"I've decided to marry you," she informed him, turning her head in his direction to see his reaction.

Itachi couldn't help but let out a small snort, "I haven't even asked you."

"So?"

"So…you're absolutely impossible."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"No."

"You can't say no."

"Yes, I can say no."

"Well then fine. I don't want to marry you," she countered, snatching her hand away from his and put an arms width of distance between each other.

"Michi…You realize we haven't even officially declared our relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend yet?"

"That's because you're too dumb to ask, so I thought we'd skip that step."

"How did I go from hating you to loving you is beyond me," Itachi muttered.

"It's beyond logic," the blue-haired girl agreed closing the distance between them and leaning into Itachi once more.

He put his arm protectively around her shoulders and placed his hand on top of her head, gently petting her.

"If I had my way, I'd marry you tomorrow," Itachi said sighing into her hair.

"The way you say that…" Michi began, lifting her head up to look at him.

He kissed her forehead as they came to the entrance to the three-story building.

"Well, when you do propose – it can't be with a ring."

"Most girls like rings with big diamonds," Itachi deadpanned as she fumbled around her pockets for her keys.

"Well I hate them."

"You wouldn't wear a ring for me?" Itachi asked.

"I'd wear ten and even some on my toes if you find my keys," she answered, patting around all her pockets again.

Itachi grabbed her keys from his own pocket and handed it to her, "You gave it to me baka-head."

He hated how she could lose everything she touched.

"Oh yea!" She snatched it from him and unlocked the door.

"So what kind of toe ring should I get you?" Itachi teased.

"The kind that says, 'Itachi smells'. Hehehe. Remember the time I threw a skunk at you…" She said giggling as he slapped her butt as punishment. She loved to bring up their childhood more often than he liked.

"Owie!" She said rubbing her butt playfully and lightly punched his bicep. "Race you!" She squealed, pushing him out of the way to get a head start up the stairs – but it was of no use…Itachi was a dozen times faster than her.

"No fair," She pouted as she finally reached her door to see him leaning against it with his arms folded.

"What's my prize?"

"My hand in marriage!" Michi grinned as she opened the door.

"I said prize, not punishment."

"Get in here before I suddenly get a headache," She threatened and he walked in chuckling at her.

Itachi entered and closed the door behind him as she walked into the living room – tossing her vest across the room and kicking her pants off as she made her way into the bedroom in her panties and shirt.

He hated how messy she was.

"I'm going to take a shower," she said over her shoulder as she opened the bathroom door.

"No," he said appearing behind her.

"I want to be squeaky clean before I get down and dirty with you," she replied turning around to look at him – seeing pure lust in his eyes. "Or now…now's good," Michi whispered wrapping her arms around his shoulders and then their lips connected in a battle for dominance.

She tugged his pants down as he removed her mesh shirt and breathed down her neck, taking in her floral and woodsy scent. "God, I need this…" He whispered as he kissed the crevasse between her neck and shoulder.

She moaned softly as he found the spot that always sent shivers all over her body. "Do me," she muttered, wanting to skip the antagonizing acts of foreplay. She was empty, and needed him to fill her up – to make her complete. He was what made her whole.

She didn't need to say anymore for Itachi to remove his boxers and rip off her panties. She ran her fingers through his long black hair and tugged on a fist full of locks as he ravaged her mouth. He groped her butt and forcefully lifted her against the wall. Michi wrapped her legs around his waist firmly, feeling his hard cock pressing against her warm wetness.

"You are such a damn tease," she muttered into his mouth and with that statement he entered her. Every muscle in Michi's body tensed up as she moaned out loudly.

Itachi gasped at Michi's tightness and squeezed her round ass. It had been too long since he had been inside her.

_Too long._

They held still for a little while – allowing themselves to bask in the perfection that was held within that moment. It would soon become a memory and it would never feel so right again.

"We always find a compromise," she whispered as she tossed her head back when Itachi began to thrust in and out of her.

"Hmm?" he muttered, unwilling to speak – just wanting to feel.

"You wanted to fuck in the bedroom, I wanted a shower," She muttered with a gasping moan as Itachi increased his pace.

She was right.

They were doing it up against the wall – between the bathroom and bedroom.

He smirked lightly as his lips found her neck and began to bite, lick and kiss down to her breasts.

"Oh…god…Itachi," she moaned arching her back, making him take her nipple into his mouth and suck on it hard.

He continued to pound into her with a steady rhythm. Wishing that his release would never come so he could have her forever like this.

"Ungh…I….unn….mmm," the female ANBU was incapable of formulating comprehendible words; one of the few times Itachi could make her speechless.

His lips found their way back to hers and they kissed, with their tongues dancing around one another, exploring each other's mouth.

"Itachi!" She screamed into his mouth as everything in her body tightened and she came.

He could feel her walls tighten and begin to contract as he continued to pound into her a few more times before his release.

They both gasped for air as their sweet glazed bodies remained connected to one another. Itachi refused to let her go, and nearly started to cry at the fact that it was probably the last time he would ever be able to love or feel something real.

But he didn't cry. She was still alive and in his arms. He wouldn't mourn…not yet.

"Let's clean up," Michi whispered into his ears and he nodded taking her into the bathroom so they could shower off.

After round two in the shower and three in the bedroom – they both laid in bed exhausted.

"ANBU training was never this tiring," Michi muttered into Itachi's chest as her finger tips drew circles around his pecks.

"Hn."

"I love that, you know."

"What?"

"Your Hn's."

Itachi stared at her with a mixture of amusement and surprise, "Why?"

"Because that's all you ever give to anyone."

"What?"

"You breathe out 'Hn' to everyone whenever they expect you to respond. Every time you say it to me or someone else, it reminds me that I'm special because you actually talk to me."

"I talk to other people," he responded dully - having no interest in the topic at hand.

"You insult other people."

"I insult you too."

"First off, I insult you and you do a pathetic retort, and second off you either insult other people or tell them what to do. You don't talk to them."

"And you love that?"

"Who else knows that you love watching sunsets when there's purple in the sky? Or what about the fact that you adore orange cats? Or that you can play the violin? Or that you actually enjoy playing chess with your brother? Only me! I'm special," Michi sounded like a thirteen year old girl to Itachi.

"Hn," He teased her and she pinched his nipple. "Fuck," he breathed out, sitting up, snatching her hand into his and giving her a warning glare.

"Or the fact that your totally head over heels in love with me," she grinned and he rolled his eyes at her.

"You wish," he muttered leaning back on the pillows and letting go of her hand so she could continue drawing patterns on his chest and abdomen with her fingers. He secretly enjoyed it, because sometimes she would write kanji's that only meant something to Itachi. It made the simple moment into something else...something more.

"You were in love with me…hmmm…I think it was when I told you to buy me dinner."

"How are you so sure?" Itachi asked since he never thought about when he realized he loved her. He just did.

"Because you agreed," she smirked.

"And when did you fall in love with me?"

"When you caught me," she replied without hesitation.

"And you punched me."

"Because I needed you to feel sometime towards me."

"A thank you would have been nice."

"Nope. I wanted you to feel and remember me. Hate is an easy emotion to feel. So I made you hate me."

"And you hated me?"

"Absolutely, and I loved you at the same time," she replied looking up and placing a kiss on his chin,"and eventually you realized you loved me after you hated me with all your heart."

"I still want a thank you from you."

"I'll thank you when I'm dead."

Her comment hit him in places that were already sore from Shisui's death. They laid in silence for a while longer as neither of them had anything else to say.

"Michi," he spoke softly in a voice he only used when speaking with Sasuke and Michi. A voice attached and emotional - a tone that meant he was human after all. Itachi could love, he could feel. People seemed to have forgotten that.

"Mmm?"

"What do you think of missing nins?"

"They're despicable," she answered immediately.

Silence engulfed them again.

"Why?" she asked, shifting her weight to get closer to him.

"What if I became one?"

"Then I'd have to hunt you down."

He didn't respond, so she continued to explain herself; "I'd have to hunt you down and beat the shit out of you."

"Not kill me?"

"Nope," she said popping the p, "I'd just be angry with you for leaving me."

"What if I murdered half the village?" he asked.

"Itachi, what if I became a missing nin for murdering half the village? How would you feel towards me?"

He didn't answer because he knew she never would. She had a heart that was pure and untaintable.

"You can do the worst, the most sinful thing you can think of, and I'll still love you," Michi reassured him.

"Are you sure of that?"

"Itachi what's wrong with you? If you're not ready to get married I'm totally cool with that, no need to threaten to kill half the village. I mean, you're going to marry me within five years; you really don't have a choice with that. But just know, I'll always love you. You can't do anything to me or anyone else for me to stop loving you."

He didn't have a response.

She made a deep sigh, "Even if you did kill Shisui. I don't care."

His eyes widened with fear but he said nothing. He wanted to tell her what was going to happen. He wanted to tell her he would have to kill their clan, her mother and father and both brothers would die by his sword. But he didn't. He remained silent.

"Just…" she spoke again, "know that I can't live without you, so please…don't make me." She snuggled closer to him trying to stifle a yawn.

"I always hated your name," Itachi said trying to change the subject...he didn't want to think about tomorrow or what he would have to do. He didn't want to imagine a life without his annoying, foul-mouthed Michi.

"Yea, yours isn't that pretty either."

Itachi chuckled sadly.

"Hey pumpkin face," Michi addressed him from her nickname for him years ago. When she had carved a pumpkin in his liking and gave it to him as a present. After he insulted her creation, she smashed the pumpkin in his face. He, then, threw her in the river and summoned a Water Release jutsu and had a water dragon attack her. She ended in the hospital and sent him death threatening letters every day till her recovery.

"Hmm?" Itachi looked down at the back of her head.

"What do you believe the best way to die is?"

He didn't want to talk about death with her.

"Simple and fast so you don't feel anything," he replied unwillingly, closing his eyes as he felt his free hand touched the kunai Michi kept under the pillow.

"If I were able to control my death I'd want it slow."

"That would be painful," Itachi said opening his eyes that were blurred by unshed tears.

"Not if you hold me. I want to die with you holding me; I want it as slow as possible," she whispered with her lips touching his chest with every syllable.

He didn't respond and she didn't say anything for so long that he believed she had fallen asleep.

He squeezed her close to him, wanting so badly to turn back time…to somehow change everything. To make things right. If at that moment he could have one wish, he wanted to go back to when they were seven. Seven and stupid.

"Itachi," she whispered his name.

"Sorry," he muttered, realizing he must have woken her.

"No, I wasn't asleep."

He didn't press her to continue talking as they both laid in darkness with an almost full moon staring at them through her small dirty, unwashed window.

"Are you going to kill me tonight?" she asked but she already knew the answer.

"Yes," he hissed with resentment. He already decided she would be the first to die in the upcoming massacre; he didn't want her to witness him murdering her family or his own.

"Do it slow," she begged as she clenched tightly to his chest and Itachi could no longer stop the tears from rolling out of his face and down his cheeks.

_God…please…send her to heaven…don't let her love for me condemn her to hell. Please. _

_Please. _

_Do me your worst to me...just spare her..._

_Please. _

Itachi began to sob into the back of Michi's head as he pulled her closer to him. But she could never get close enough...close enough to make it all okay.

"It's okay," she cooed and comforted him, "I'll wait for you."

Itachi couldn't stop crying; for what he did, for what he was about to do, and for what he had to do. All for his love of Konoha, he had to sacrifice everything.

The irony of being able to save lives means killing them, it ate at his soul. The only comfort he got was that Michi would never be able to see him as a missing nin. She would never experience the pain of losing her family or disgrace of being in love with a presumed traitor. She would be spared some sort of pain.

She pushed him away slowly and reached for the kunai under her pillow and placed it in the hand that was formally holding her. Then she rested her head against his shoulder as they both stared ahead at the empty wall that she always said needed to be decorated with pictures.

"You know…my favorite memory of us was when you became an ANBU. Remember? You were thirteen. I really looked up to you, even with all my bitchyness. I told you I would become one too and you laughed at me and told me that I'd never pass. But the next day you snuck into my room at 5 in the morning, pulled me by the ear out of my house in my pajamas and forced me to train with you…because you said I was too weak to be an ANBU."

Itachi's clenched the kunai tightly with every word that escaped her lips. He couldn't speak..his voice had gotten lost somewhere in his shattering heart. He couldn't find the words to tell her that he loved her and wanted to marry her, have children, be a family and make her happy every day of her life. He couldn't find the words to tell her how much he loved every stupid thing she did and said.

The words were lost.

But her words were there, so she kept talking.

"Hehe. Remember the Spring festival when we were fourteen? I bumped into you and you wanted to leave calling the whole event stupid and you hn'd and whined and just acted like an overall prissy bitch. But then I insulted your aiming ability and made you play baskets with me for an hour, remember? I still say the game was rigged. My basket wasn't even. But it was a lot of fun anyway, and I caught my first goldfish then too! I bet I would still have it if you weren't such a jerk and made me throw it at you."

Itachi would have given her all the goldfish in the world to spare her the pain.

"OH! And my sixteenth birthday present was amazing. You know, even that surprised me. I didn't expect you to get me anything, especially not this necklace," she said fingering the string necklace with three circular stones, "I really love it. Every time I touch it I think of you and me. I even carved us into them. I didn't tell you about that because well…I just didn't. The right stone says Michi because I'm always right. The left one says Itachi. The center one says forever. Hehe, corny I know, but it really makes me happy to touch the necklace every time I went on a long mission without you."

He didn't tell her that he kept the first kunai she had ever tried to kill him with sowed into his weapons pouch.

"Oh, and remember that mission…. I never got a chance to apologize for being so hard headed. I really didn't mean to make so many mistakes. Really glad you saved my ass though. You're good at that…saving my ass I mean."

He wanted to tell her that she could get into as much trouble as she wanted, and he would save her every time but that would soon become a lie.

"And know this! I'm still really pissed off at you. I can't believe you never got me a stuffed animal to sleep with. All boyfriends do that for their girlfriends. You are just an outright terrible boyfriend! I want an orange stuffed cat...A small one...Okay?"

Itachi didn't respond.

"Also, for your information, my ass is not fat. Just plump. No more telling me I have a fat ass. Oh my god, can you believe that I was running through the forest a few weeks ago, I forgot to tell you, and there was this squirrel thing in my way so I jumped on a thinner branch to avoid it but put too much force on it and I fell but tada…landed on my ass. Best. Cushion. Ever. That's plumpness not fatness. Fatness would have bruised."

He wished he could smile or laugh…but there wasn't an ounce of humanity left in him. He wasn't able to scold her for never keeping track of her chakra or surroundings when she wasn't on a mission…the words just got stuck somewhere he couldn't find.

She let out a deep sigh. "I love you. I really do. And if you ever kiss or love another girl, I swear I will come back from the grave and ring her neck and then kick your ass and find some hot guy to make out in front of you."

Itachi was ready to forfeit it all. He was ready to ask her to run away with him and never look back. He was ready to grab her and go somewhere where they could exist without living the shinobi life. He wanted to make her his wife and love her forever. But then she spoke…and he knew that would never happen.

"But it's for Konoha isn't it? It has to be. I mean we love everyone here. We exist to protect. You'd never betray your village…after all, that is where our loyalties lie," she lifted her head to stare at the exhausted expression on Itachi's face, "Don't torture yourself too much. I'm ready." Michi said as she sat up.

He, like a dying man, looked at the kunai in his hand helplessly, as if it was the weapon that was killing him.

"Look at me."

He looked at her. Her sweet, innocent, blue eyes…as blue as the water he drowned Shisui in.

Tears began to swell up in his eyes again.

"Shhh…no more crying. Who wears the pants in the relationship, eh?" She joked with him but he could see the formulation of water begging to escape her eyes as well.

"Michi…" He whispered, wishing she would ask him to stop because he knew if she said that one word, he would turn his back on the village.

But she didn't and without that command from her, he was stuck in this endless purgatory.

"Slow and keep me in your arms till I'm gone. That's all I want."

He brought the kunai closer to her, his arm shaking with fear and self hatred. She put her small petite hands over his to steady him.

Itachi wanted to kill her quickly, to end her life without causing her pain.

"Please," she begged him and pulled the kunai to her neck.

Her eyes reassured him that whatever was going to happen…forever…she would love him.

_Forever. _

Slowly the blade met her neck and, together, they sliced it. She didn't make a sound as blood escaped and poured down, tainting her necklace and dripping down to her breasts. They both let go of the kunai and it dropped on the bed with a soft thud. She gave him a smile as she whispered, "See? Not so bad," and curled up beside him, her blood spilling onto his chest as her hand gripped his side.

"Hum to me."

And he hummed her a melody as sweet and soft as he could make it. He hummed as her blood covered his body and drenched the sheets. He continued humming even while her body grew cold and her hand's grip weakened.

"Itachi…Tha-than…thank youuu…..f-f-f-or….catch-ch-ching….me."

He squeezed her closer to his body and didn't stop his humming as he felt his soul being clenched by the devil's hands and ripped apart into millions of pieces that would never again be put back together.

When the sun came pouring through the window, he still couldn't move. Her body no longer provided him warmth or reassurance for redemption but he couldn't acknowledge that she was gone.

_Forever._

_For good. _

There would no longer be an emotional basketcase to welcome him home from missions.

There would no longer be pointless arguments about trivial matters.

She would no longer try to cook up crazy concoctions for him to taste.

He wouldn't be able to yell at her to stop tugging her dress on the rare occasion she wore one.

She wouldn't give him a headache from her yammering.

He wouldn't be able to lecture her about her disoriented and messy nature.

She wouldn't try to blow up the apartment every time she couldn't find something.

He wouldn't be able to catch her anymore…because she couldn't fall.

She was dead.

And so was he. His eyes lost nearly all his hope and all the tears had been shed. He was only a vessel holding remnants of his past life by thinning strings that were all close to snapping. Michi took his tears and smile with her to the other world. He was left cold as a corpse.

He continued to replay the hundreds of memories with Michi and didn't move from his bed till mid afternoon.

He would have to get up soon…

His best friend was dead; his lover was dead…now he had to kill his clan and family.

Everyone he once loved and cared for would be dead…._to save a village. _

_To stop a war. _

He had to become the worst type of murderer.

Another fact crept up on him…a fact he had been trying to push aside…to hide somewhere in the tsunami of emotions.

Itachi would have to kill someone else he loved dearly…He would have to kill his brother.

His little brother, who looked up to him since the day he learned to walk. His little brother that always clung to every word he said and begged to train with him.

He remembered watching Sasuke practice Fire Release techniques on his way to his room.

"You're doing it wrong," Itachi had told his little brother.

"Teach me then!" Sasuke demanded without hesitation.

"Fine," Itachi pretended to sound displeased but he was proud of his little brother for wanting to learn.

"I want to be just as good as you," the younger brother said performing the hand seals for the jutsu.

"You will be better," Itachi muttered before he corrected Sasuke's stance and execution.

There was nothing left to look up to. Itachi had become a monster of the worst caliber.

Sasuke would never forgive him for murdering their clan and family, he would hate him.

He would hate him.

_Hate. _

"I hate you!" Michi's childhood voice rang in his head from a long ago memory.

Itachi realized that he wanted Sasuke to hate him.

He needed Sasuke to hate him...To remember him. So maybe, one day, he could learn to love him.

Maybe, then, through Sasuke's hatred, he could go on living and protecting the village as a missing nin. He would have something to live for….something to save. Someone to keep alive.

_Maybe…_

Maybe he could do to Sasuke what Michi had done for him.

He wanted to be provided with some sort of redemption for his unforgivable acts…something to keep him glued to reality. He needed Sasuke to survive.

He needed Sasuke to kill him because he wouldn't be able to die any other way.

With those thoughts, he had made up his mind…he needed to leave someone alive. Someone who could handle the hate and suffering and one day return it to Itachi. He knew that Sasuke would be strong enough to do that.

Itachi kissed the top of Michi's head and whispered, "Please wait for me. I promise I'll join you when Sasuke defeats me," as he unwrapped her corpse from him and sat up looking at her beautiful body once more. Her now dull blue eyes stared at him and he placed his index and middle fingers on her eyelids to close them. He leaned into her, placing the last kiss he would ever give on her dark cold lips.

Then he removed her bloodstained necklace and put it on.

"From hate to love," he whispered to himself, "from hate to love." He repeated the phrase gently as he stared at the one person who would love him no matter what choices he makes.

He left the bedroom and went to take a shower to wash off her blood so he could bath in more.

He would keep Sasuke alive so he could protect the village until his brother was strong enough and then, he could finally be at peace with Michi.

In Heaven or Hell.

He knew she would go to either as long as it would be with him.

He touched the bloodstained necklace, and could almost feel her dainty arms wrapped around him whispering useless facts, empty threats, and heartfelt I love yous in his ear.

The sunset that night was stained with orange and red, foretelling of what was to come. Itachi stood at the gate of the Uchiha Clan.

His best friend was six feet under.

His lover was covered in bloody sheets cuddling an orange stuffed cat.

His clan was about to die.

And his brother…his brother's life was about to be ruined.

With a full moon behind him, he entered the gate and left humanity.

There was nothing left for Itachi but murder, self loathing, power, and deception. He had nothing to fear, he already lost everything that was ever of any value to him. Memories were his only companion.

* * *

A/N: Thank you.

Update: Fixed errors, started a collection of chapters depicting their childhood together.


	2. Love is not healthy

Michi walked in lazily to class…she was on time because her father no longer trusted her to get to the Academy on her own. Apparently he was determined to make sure she was a respectable student this school year. What self respecting seven year old would willing arrive to class on time? Even her mother had jumped on the bandwagon of making the little seven year old miserable by withholding breakfast if she wasn't downstairs and ready to leave at six in the morning. And ready included being showered. _Showered_!

She bit her bottom lip and fixed her bright blue hair into the second pig tail. Her father had also told her she looks too childish with pigtails – little did he realize that was exactly the look she was going for. She was in no hurry to grow up. She was seven…and wanted to be seven….not twenty seven like everyone else seemed to expect her to act. According to their timeline she would be middle aged by ten, and ancient by fifteen. Though with the average lifespan of ninjas now-a-days, that was pretty spot on.

She shuffled her feet into the door marked boldly; **A-1,** after she finally evened out her high pig tails. Half the students still weren't even there when she entered the class filled with eight rows of chairs and desks. She grumbled internally as she took the same seat she had last year. First row and closest to the door, her motto was last one in – first one out. All those stupid adults were trying to rework her entire personality and the young Uchiha was not into conforming.

Ignoring the other (Goody-too-shoes) kids in the class, she pressed her forehead against the desk and let her arms hang loosely at her sides as she took deep controlled breaths.

It wasn't that she found the Academy to be so torturous. It was the fact that she was in the A group. The A group was composed of A-1 and A-2 subsections which was for students that were above average and were expected to graduate by 10 to chunin level and be Jonin's before puberty even set in. Michi wasn't one of them…she wanted desperately to believe that, but when forced, her average performance was above the average of the above average class and nothing could hide that….no matter how hard she tried. And she tried _very_ hard. Her teacher always saw through all her attempts to fail and get kicked out and she hated to disappoint that one annoying, pestering, too-smart for his own damn good…

_Stupid Taki. _

"Michi! Oh my god, are you here early? Did someone die?"

The blue headed girl muttered something unintelligible at her best friend – Kari. Kari was on the fast track to ninja-hood like her and belonged to the prestigious Hyuga Clan. She wasn't a part of the main family but her skills had far surpassed any of the current students from her clan which caused such a ruckus that rumors spread saying the clan leader was her real father since there was no other explanation in their senseless silver colored eyes.

Kari was one of the shortest girls in the class and had the same childish plump body as Michi. Her eyes were an admirable hazel and her brown hair was long and curly which was usually pulled back into a pony tail. She had admitted to her blue haired friend once that she would wake up at four in the morning, everyday, to do her hair.

She took the seat behind Michi and kicked the back of her best friend's chair for attention.

"Michi!" She squeaked.

"Hungh," Michi responded lifting her head up from the uncomfortable wooden desk and turned her body to face Kari as she slumped on arm over the back of the chair.

Every day for class Kari usually wore a very noticeable bow or flower in her hair – today it was a big rose that was nearly half the size of her head. It was her thing and since she wasn't a part of the main Hyuga branch, such antics were ignored. She was expected to be not-elitist, and damn were they all angered when Kari ended up being more skilled the elitist children her age. Unfortunately for Michi – she was a part of the main house of the Uchiha family and was expected to be so perfect that perfect was the minimal standard of the her OCD family.

"Jeez, what happened to you? Summer treat you poorly?" Kari asked with a raised brow as she pulled her hair in front of her left shoulder and ran her fingers between her locks.

"Dad found out Fugaku taught his son fire jutsu…sent me off to some wind village for some relatives with excessive patience to teach me."

"Was their patience enough?" She asked eyeing a group of students who were walking in. Kari's eyes were destined to take on the silver glow of her clan in another year and Michi tried to ignore that tiny fact. She was too used to equating silver-eyes with assholes, just like black-eyes meant corpse face.

"Nope," Michi replied which made Kari assume that she hadn't learned the fire jutsu…she had, her relatives just didn't have patience for Michi's existence.

"So your summer sucked?" Kari asked turning her attention back to the seemingly sleep deprived girl in front of her.

"Hard."

"Hey," a boy greeted the two girls as he walked in and took the open seat beside Michi. Tarim was about an inch shorter than both girls but his wild spiky hair more than made up for his lack of height – gaining him about 2 inches over the tallest person in the class. Two other girls followed Tarim into the room and greeted their friends with a smile.

Their names were Sukia and Lukia. Michi usually distinguished them by their eye color. One had bright green eyes and the other had dark green eyes. Otherwise they were identical twins with their pale sunshine blonde hair, plump pink lips, round faces, and small foreheads covered by excessively long bangs. The other noticeable difference was that Sukia spoke eighty-five percent of the time while Lukia remained far more reserved. Michi liked both girls well enough – there really wasn't anyone she didn't like – except maybe those annoying adults.

"How was your summer?" Sukia asked the group as she took a seat behind Tarim.

"Great," Kari began, "I did the animal volunteering program in the Eastern Forest."

"Oh my god! Me too! I was in the West, we saw soooo many monkeys! They were absolutely the most adorable creatures I have ever seen; I think I have a picture of them somewhere…" Tarim began as he shuffled through his pockets to try to a produce a picture but came up empty handed.

"Lukia and I went spent a whole month in a spa resort that our folks opened a little outside town. Total fun," Sukia glanced at the bored looking blue-eyed blue-haired girl who stared dully at them, "How about you Michi?"

Before Michi could begin about the detestful summer she had…Itachi walked in…which meant everyone around her _had_ to swoon.

"Oh my god," Kari gasped as she openly ogled the seven year old boy with the long black hair and onyx eyes. Michi was sure Kari was about to start visibly drooling a puddle at her desk.

"He's even prettier than before," Sukia muttered under her breath as her green eyes followed his every movement.

Michi didn't even bother to turn her body to look at him, he wasn't worth the effort. Sure, she had a small…tiny…_minuscule_ thing for him too…who wouldn't? But she wasn't going to go sacrificing her dignity for some guy who didn't pay two cents to anyone because he believed no one was really worth his time. He was _worse_ than the adults! At least the adults could pretend to know better – he was young like her, he couldn't possibly know better.

"He gives me heart palpitations," Kari whispered leaning over her desk to watch Itachi take the front row seat closest to the window.

_Seven year olds shouldn't use words like palpitations_….Michi thought internally. All her normal academy friends weren't anywhere close to the crushing on the opposite sex stage – boys had cooties and girls were icky. They also used the normal vocabulary words of kids their age which mainly consisted of _cool_, _awesome_, _gay_, _amazing_, and _dude_ and phrases like _I know you are but what am I?_

"I swear Michi, are you sure you're not lesbian? Because even I check out Itachi more than you," Tarim said with a wicked grin, insinuating that since he was a guy he shouldn't be looking at other guys. But he was gay…he just didn't know it yet.

Before Michi could answer Sukia cut her off, "She's like related to him so obviously she wouldn't go for him."

"So?" Tarim challenged.

"I'm not related to him. We're in the same clan that's all," Michi corrected. Just because her crush wasn't verbally pronounced didn't mean that she didn't have it or want people thinking they were related…_ewwwww_. She had as much of a chance of getting together with him as anyone else…which was zero, because Itachi was asexual. Michi had already diagramed how his reproduction would take place – one day so many fangirls would attack him that they would finally capture him. Then they would get jealous and start pulling his body in opposite directions yelling things like, "he's mine!" and "back off!" till they pulled so hard that Itachi would split in two and tada – a new Itachi. Sure her hypothesis had a few kinks, but in her mind it was very plausible.

Sukia cocked her eyebrow at Michi over her relations with Itachi, but her sister confirmed, "The Uchiha clan is technically made of nineteen families in Konoha that are not related to one another and have seven families in neighboring villages – also not related."

"Thank you for being chalk full of useless information," Michi replied with a lazy smile at Lukia.

Lukia just shrugged and brushed the sarcastic comment off.

More kids began to filter into the classroom and the volume of chatter escalated. Most of them talked about their summer and their excitement to finally start learning A-group approved genin level jutsu.

Professor Taki entered five minutes before class was to start. He was a tall man in his late thirties and had already survived the Great Shinobi wars and dozens of massacres – he was best suited to teach protégées, being one himself. Rumor had it that he was the other nomination for Hokage behind Minato but refused due to a deep seeded hatred of politics. He had long black messy hair with gray highlights which seemed to add ten years to his appearance. Dressed in the normal jonin attire, using his headband as a belt, he didn't look like a retired teacher but he hadn't been sent out on any ranked missions since he started working at the Academy.

He set up his desk with two large stacks of papers to his right and a binder in the middle before taking a seat. After settling in he looked at his students with his piercing small yellow eyes and took attendance silently.

"Oh my god, did you hear? Tikki died last month," Kari whispered leaning closer to her circle of friends as said girl's closest friend walked in into the classroom.

"What?" Michi asked startled. Tikki was a girl who Michi had seen a few times in the playground but couldn't recall any information about her.

"She didn't survive the transformation," Kari muttered, her hazel eyes glancing to the side momentarily.

"She was a part of the Yamiko Clan wasn't she?" Sukia asked leaning back in her seat as a serious expression plagued her childish face.

"Yeah…" Kari nodded, and no one except Tarim had the guts to ask what everyone else was thinking, "Michi did you unlock the Sharingan?"

"Nope," she replied popping the p. She wasn't worried, it was fifty-fifty that she'd die unlocking it. Either she did or she didn't.

"I heard Itachi already has," Sukia replied stealing another glance at the male Uchiha who spent the precious moments before class staring expressionlessly at the green board behind Professor Taki's.

"Good for him," Michi replied coldly wishing everyone wouldn't talk about him…it made her so much more aware. Even if she shared the same compound as him, it didn't mean she saw him all that much but her father spoke about her peer enough for her to be able to dictate Itachi's whole schedule from morning to night.

"I bet Michi has the hots for him but refuses to admit it," Kari teased trying to change the subject but before Michi could defend herself Professor Taki cleared his throat loudly.

Everyone fell silent and gave him their undivided attention. Michi slowly turned her body and sat properly in her chair as he began to speak, "Welcome back everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your summer and are ready to get back to work. We will begin with a lecture followed by the usual 3 hour exam. This year exams will be given Monday, Wednesday _AND_ Friday. After the exam today you will be able to have lunch till noon, Kunai practice in the gymnasium room 13, followed by gymnastics practice, and then chakra control class in your own designated classes. I hope everyone has at least taken the time to study his or her reading material assigned over the summer as you will be quizzed on it today. Remember, anything lower than a 65 on more than three exams and you are kicked out so please take these seriously."

Michi raised her eyebrow; last year's passing grade was 55.

"Today we will begin with the history of Genjutsu. Your homework assignment will be found in the syllabus that I will hand out shortly. Also, a main point I would like to make – tardiness will not be tolerated…"

Michi could have sworn he glared straight at her when he spoke his last statement.

"Punishments will be as always, Rank 3 community service, Rank 2 community service, Rank 1 community service, and then…if you are persistent enough – Detention. I hope none of you will be stupid enough to do anything that will cause these punishments to come into consideration. If you are curious on what could entail punishment please refer to the Academy Group A handbook."

You didn't get kicked out of the Group A classes for bad behavior – that was fixable; you got kicked out for stupidity. And unfortunately, stupidity was harder to fake than one would think.

Professor Taki stood and walked up to Michi handing her a stack of papers, "Take one and pass them back."

Michi did as he asked and looked down at her copy of the Syllabus. She was bored in the past week and already read a fourth of the required readings for the semester.

"The assigned readings and homework will be found on these sheets," the professor continued after most children received a copy, "tomorrow I will present you with your first project. And a brief reminder…Do. Not. Slack. Off," He said accentuating every syllable of every word, "Two years ago there was over a hundred of you, now there is fifty-two, and by the time graduation roles around there will probably be only fifteen… that's optimistically of course. Ahem. Okay take out your notebooks and let's begin the lecture."

Everyone obeyed like good little children and Taki began to speak trying to put emphasis on the exciting segments to keep his students entertained. Michi ignored him and began to doodle on her notebook. She drew what she believed she would look like in five years. _Bustier_…She muttered wordlessly to herself as she increased her breast size while Professor Taki went on about illusions and other genjutsu stuff. By the time she finished her drawing enough to be satisfied; their teacher was wrapping up his lecture.

"That is the mechanics of the basic jutsu techniques. We will get into further detail tomorrow. Everyone put everything away and have only a pen or pencil out on the table."

Michi closed her blue notebook and placed it in her ruggedly old fungus green messenger bag. It was her father's from his Jonin days. He had told her to throw it out a dozen times already but she refused to listen. She needed to have something of her father's before he gave everything else away.

"Don't cheat. All the exams are different," Professor Taki replied placing a 20 page exam; face down, on each student's desk.

Michi sighed and waited for Taki to give them permission to begin as she flipped her purple pencil between her fingers at an accelerating speed.

"You may begin."

Everyone flipped their tests around and began hastily, Michi finished ten more pencil spins before even bothering to glance at the back of the test.

She really didn't feel like taking it. Normal Academy kids were being tested on Konoha history…and writing about the great Fire Nation literary heroes and artistic protégées. They'd also take geography exams of where each village was located and learn about various cultures and even put on plays and performances every month for the civilians of Konoha.

She was getting tested on…

She flipped over the test and looked at the first question.

"A ninja is in a distorted clearing that runs eight by four meters from its longest point and six by three at his shortest. He is surrounded by 8 rogue ninjas with 15 kunais each. The first rogue ninja is located seven degrees east six meters above the ground, the second eighty degrees east seventeen meters above the ground, the third five degrees west five meters above the ground, the fourth eighteen degrees north three meters above the ground, the fifth seventy degrees south four and a half meters above the ground, the sixth sixty degrees east six meters above the ground, the seventh forty-one degrees north standing ground level. If each rogue ninja throws a kunai with a two second interval starting with the one closest to the east with a force averaging fifty-five m/s while moving at a speed of fourty-two m/s in an oval with a circumference of sixty five meters around the ninja – what is the best position for the ninja to be to evade the kunais after seven and a half seconds of battle."

Michi imaged the scene play out in her head and subconsciously wrote down, "Sixty degrees south two to seven meters above the ground."

Then she sighed and her gaze traveled across her paper as she looked at everyone else working diligently. She stole a glance at Itachi and he was filling out the test with undeniable boredom. He probably found these exams as dull as she did but at least he was able to bear it. Michi on the other hand was prone to distractions…and if there were no distractions she made some.

Slowly, under the space provided for scrap on the second question Michi began to draw Itachi's frame. Then she stopped as a heated blush formed across her cheeks and placed her attention to his surroundings. She drew the detailed glass frame and the view of the rusty old playground behind the window. Then she went into detail on the person who sat behind him and then when she looked back up to finally force herself to draw Itachi to complete the picture he already got up and was handing in his exam.

_Bitch_.

He ruined her drawing because now she only had him as a silhouette. She ignored the fact that she could probably draw him from memory. _It wasn't the same._

"Good job Itachi," the teacher complimented as he looked at his watch, "Thirty-four minutes, best yet."

She sighed and flipped the page to the next empty space and began to draw different imaginary weapons since Itachi was leaving the classroom. After her ninth weapon which looked more like a dagger sticking out a fairies ass…

"Michi," Professor Taki's voice rang loud and clear and she looked up, noticing that she was the last one left. "Come up."

Slowly Michi got out of her seat and walked up to her irritated looking professor. He grabbed the test from her small hand and looked at it with a deep sigh, "Michi….why?"

"Your exams are boring," she replied simply. It was the truth.

"Why not do them quickly and get them over with?" He tried to reason.

"The playground looked pretty. I wanted to draw it," Michi told the half truth. She was more interested in drawing something else….but that something else had moved before she could get the details in.

Her large blue eyes watched as he crumbled her paper in his large masculine hands. "I can't keep doing this…" he said placing a blank test faced down in front of Michi, "pull up a chair."

Michi turned around and grabbed a chair from the front of the classroom and pushed it towards her teacher's desk. She sat down in the chair, just as she did after almost all her failed exams.

"Twenty minutes," the old man said as Michi flipped the test over with a sigh and gave him one last fleeting look, "why can't you just fail me and put me in the average classes."

"Because you're not average, nineteen minutes and fifty seconds left."

Michi looked back down and began to read the questions, unable to distract herself with something more enjoyable since her teacher was going to eventually burn a hole through her head with all his condescending staring.

When she answered the last question she placed her pencil behind her ear and stared at Professor Taki coldly.

_That was boring. _

"With two minutes and nine seconds to spare," He said ignoring her unmannered gaze as he picked up the paper, "You could beat Itachi's time fair and square."

She didn't respond and her teacher continued, "I bet you'd give him some good competition if you tried."

Michi shrugged as she watched him look over her answers, "Itachi doesn't try either," she added offhandedly.

Her teacher picked up his red ink pen and wrote on her exam and handed it back. Michi looked at it and looked back up at her teacher with a perplexed gaze, "why'd you take off thirty-five points?"

"For laziness."

_It's not laziness…it's boringness….it's sanity…._

"Hmph." She replied standing up and putting her chair back into original location. Her teacher had never lowered her grade more than five points before and she didn't particularly enjoy seeing a sixty-five on something that was one hundred percent correct.

"Michi, you have so much talent," her teacher coxed her as she picked up her father's bag and stuffed her test deep inside.

"So do you!" Michi replied ambiguously as she gave him a fake smile.

He sighed, he hated being cruel but two years of giving Michi leeway was two years too much. He didn't want to lose his job. "Michi, your shoe lace is untied."

"Bye Professor Taki!" She replied completely ignoring his warning as she walked out the door.

The young girl growled to herself as she walked into the deserted hallway. Everyone was already in the courtyard eating and gossiping and what not. Internally, she grimaced at the thought of her father finding out her first exam grade. It really was a perfect score…it was just all wrong.

She couldn't do something boring when there were other choices…she just couldn't.

It was so….boring and the playground looked beautiful and so did…

_Itachi _

He was standing in front of his open locker putting away a textbook that he was probably reading earlier.

He wore a black tight knitted sweater with black gi pants and the whole ensemble accented his pale white skin even more…it made him glow.

Michi looked away, forcing herself not to ogle him like all the other girls. She was not going to fall into the trap of being a brainless nobody to him. She did not believe that being in love or having a crush or being remotely infatuated with another person was good for anyone's health. No matter what all those romance books her mother read said.

Love was not healthy.

At all.

Besides she was too young to love…She had convinced herself of that. Seven year olds do not fall in love.

Something from the ceiling dripped onto her cheek but she looked up, the lack of attention caused her to trip over one of her untied shoe laces. With the surprise loss of balance she was about to fall backwards with a crash landing on her buttocks. Except the thump and sharp pain she expected never came.

Instead Itachi had his arms around her, keeping her from falling. Sparks seemed to fly from the contact and she could feel his warm breath on her neck. It almost made her shiver with glee.

Her bright blue eyes met his deep onyx eyes and for a moment she noticing a glimmer of something deep inside. It was fear…he was scared for her. But as soon as she noticed it – it was gone and his expression remained dull, unreadable, and mysterious.

He steadied her balance and immediately she punched him in the face.

Because that is what any sane person would do….

_Right? _

_Right. _

His eyes grew twice their size as he stared at her completely perplex and incapable of connecting cause with effect.

"What the fuck? What did you do that for?" he growled loudly placing his cold palm on the bright red mark her knuckles made and rubbed it harshly trying to subdue the pain.

"I'd rather fall than ever be caught by you," Michi deadpanned as she finished fixing her pig tails.

Love was unhealthy and that punch was proof because a sane person would have thanked him.

Cowardly she walked away in haste before he could say anything else.

Michi could feel his stunned gaze burning into her back and that was okay…because she was not going to be some girl he caught. There would be dozens more girls that he would catch because of his outstanding reflexes…she was not going to be just one of the many.

He would notice her, he would remember her.

Then Michi realized how wrong all the girls were going about Itachi. Everyone loved him and he never noticed any one of them because they were all the same. Every single one of them wanted to please him, be what they thought he wanted them to be. Hell even the older girls were after him, but he brushed them off just the same. Because they were all the same – ready and willing to be subordinate to his every whim.

She would hate him….and he would notice her. Or kill her…but she was good at ignoring the latter possibility. It was all fifty-fifty anyway.

With that punch, she decided, had been her first mark…her first mark of many.

She turned the corner towards the courtyard finally releasing herself from his burning deadly line of vision.


	3. The rest of the day

"Michi!" Kari shouted waving her friend over by the picnic table under a willow tree.

The blue eyed girl ran towards them, excited to tell them what she just did.

"What's the rush?" The louder of the twins asked as Michi took a seat beside Tarim.

Then Michi's rationality caught up with her. She really didn't want the whole school to know she punched Itachi in the face. His fan-club would assemble against her, and she really wasn't sure what her survival rate against an army of rapid children was but it was one of those few experiences she didn't want to live through just to see the outcome of.

So instead of saying, "I punched Itachi in the face," she said, "I am starving, did you get me lunch?" it was about the same if you squinted from afar.

"Turkey wrap with extra mayo, you're welcome," Tarim said handing the meal to her.

"You can have the rest of my soda, I think I got fat," Sukia said looking down at her stomach and pinching at the skin to prove her point.

"You're not fat," her sister commented sipping her coke from a straw.

"You're ten years too young to be thinking about shit like that," Michi said with a full mouth.

"And you're ten years too young to be using that type of language," Sukia retorted.

"Maybe two years too young – we're ninjas, foul mouthed like the Sailors in the west," Michi said taking a big greedy sip of her soda.

"What did you think of the test?" Kari asked changing the subject before a verbal cat fight broke out. Michi and Sukia both possessed that personality trait of never backing down…unless unconscious and the last fight the two girls had ended up with all the bystanders being grounded by their parents as well.

"It was okay, harder than I thought it would be, I got an 81, Lukia got an 83," Sukia said and her sister nodded in agreement.

"I got a 69," Tarim growled, "I hate the in-actions questions, but the stuff about strategies I aced."

"65," Michi muttered taking another big bite.

"Woah, 65?" Kari asked in shock, "what happened to your five points under a hundred streak?"

"Distractions," Michi replied.

"Excuses, excuses," her best friend replied, "I actually got the highest grade this time! 84."

"Good job," Sukia congratulated her.

"I have a question," Michi said taking the last bite of her wrap.

"You eat like an animal," Tarim insulted.

"Technically humans are animals," Sukia countered.

"What's your question?" Kari asked, usually being the one to keep everyone from arguing and attempting to kill one another. When she thought about it, she really should be awarded a humanitarian award. The humble trait seemed to have skipped Kari at birth.

"If I made an enemy in this school, you'd guys totally support me in kicking said persons ass, right?"

Her friends nodded and agreed with, "yeses" and "ofcourses", because "that's what friends do."

"Now if said enemy has a lot of…erhm people that will stand up for him or her, you guys would be there for me right?"

"Of course," Kari answered without hesitation, "what the hell did you get yourself into?" Then she paused for a moment before quickly adding in desperation, "Please tell me you didn't place another bomb on Mrs. Wilknins cat again…"

"Oh, nothing…yet…maybe, it's what I'm getting myself into…not in it yet..and no cats blowing up…probably."

"Maybe it's better not to get into it then?" Sukia asked, "and are we still talking about the fat ladies cat?"

"No, I just – "

The bell sounded interrupting their conversation.

"Seriously, Michi, learn to finish the test faster next time," Kari commented as everyone got up and walked to throw out the garbage and head to the gymnasium room 13 for Kunai practice.

Their weapon's master; Temtem, who had recently given birth to Tenten; her daughter, was Michi's least favorite teacher in the whole school. As the children filtered into the class, the teacher stood at the door handing each one of them a scroll.

She instructed them to sit wherever they wanted, and Kari made way to the middle of the room – leading the pack of friends.

"Oh my god, is that a bruise on Itachi?" Sukia whispered into Michi's ear.

Michi's crystal blue eyes shot towards where Itachi sat staring straight at her.

"EKKKK! I think he's staring at me!" Sukia squealed as she adjusted her forest-green tunic.

"No way! He's staring at me," Kari commented as she winked unabashingly at the Uchiha.

Michi's stomach turned.

He wasn't staring at them. He was glaring poisonous darts at _her_.

"Let's sit closer," Kari said casually moving towards the left and finally situating herself barely a meter away from Itachi.

"He really is staring at one of you," Tarim exclaimed in a hushed whisper as Itachi's eyes waivered in their emission of threatening aura.

"He doesn't look happy," Sukia whispered back as they all took their seat on the cold waxed wooden floor.

"No, that's just his pouty face," Kari reasoned.

Michi took another look at him and offered him a smirk as she mouthed, "How's your face?"

He definitely noticed her…now all it took was for him to like her and not want to kill her in the most monstrous and torturous ways imaginable and she'd be golden. The only problem was that she hadn't thought about how to accomplish the second part of her plan.

Before Itachi could respond to the blue bitch, as he nicknamed her in his head, the teacher had begun speaking.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, today I will talk to you a bit about kunais, just a refreshment, of course. I did enough weapons preaching last year. This is how one looks like, those scrolls currently in your possession holds one dull kunai, and now you're all going to unseal the scroll get the kunai, strap the scroll to your leg and make two straight lines with the same amount of students on opposite sides of the room. Lecture over."

Everyone scrambled to get their scrolls opened and unseal the weapon in it after Tamtam added in her threatening and slightly belittling voice, "if you are unable to unseal the scroll get the hell out." After everyone succeeded, they rushed to one far end of the wall. Michi made sure to face Itachi – who seemed to do the same. Kari and Tarim, and the twins were each other's partners.

"Woah, you sure you want to stand there?" Kari whispered to Michi after she noticed her best friend's partner.

"Do you think anyone else wants to be partnered up with him right now?" Michi replied.

It was true that people were avoiding the male Uchiha heir more than usual due to his livid expression that promised pain, but it still didn't explain why Michi took it upon herself to be partnered with him when she normally preferred the easy way out.

"There's a small board against the wall, pick it up," everyone turned around and picked up a tiny palm sized wooden board, "hold it like this," Tamtam said raising her hand up to show the proper way to hold it, "with none of your fingers touching the outward surface, keep it pressed against your palm."

"The kunai's dull enough not to cause major damage if you're hit, but it is sharp enough to go through the board. So everyone take twelve steps forward."

All her students stepped forward till they were only four meters apart from their partner. Itachi continued to stare dangerously at Michi and she pretended not to notice while keeping a too sweet and innocent expression on her face.

"Now a demonstration, this is how you throw a kunai," Tamtam grabbed the kunai from her belt and threw it across the room quickly and it landed two inches deep into the wall, "without chakra."

"A seal has been cast on all the weapons, so don't even bother trying to use chakra, your knees will give out and you will get Level One punishment."

Michi sighed; this year was a hell of a lot stricter than the last.

"You will throw kunai's at your partner into their stomach, and your partner will block it with the board in the palm of their hand. You miss – hope that your partner can block it. Try not to stab each other's eyes out," Tamtam said walking towards the front of the room, "My left will be starting the kunai throwing, my right will put their kunais away into their belts. If your kunai gets lost the left side will take theirs out and if you manage to lose two kunai's, both get Level One punishment."

The right side of the room which included Michi, put their kunais away.

"Brats on my left, hold the board in your right hand and throw the kunai with the left. I'll tell you when to switch, ninja's have to be ambidextrous so don't be getting a dominant side anytime soon."

Everyone positioned themselves.

"Ready, set, go!"

Itachi threw the kunai faster and with more strength than anyone in the room – he aimed it straight at Michi's head, right between her eyes. To his surprise the blue eyed girl blocked it with ease, he called out to her; "I missed," in the smug voice Uchiha's were taught to use when teasing subordinates.

Michi grinned as she disconnected the kunai from the board and without taking the proper stance or giving any warnings; she shot the kunai straight for his groan. He blocked it.

"Me too," she mimicked his tone.

He aimed for her heart next, she blocked it.

She aimed for his nose next, he blocked it.

They aimed for every single body part but the stomach.

"TIME!" The teacher screamed as Itachi caught the kunai aimed for his knee cap.

"Sam and Larko, Maranda and Chris, Kyo and Ken– level one punishment," She walked back to the center of the room, some students were bleeding and had visible bruises on their bodies, "You, you, and you go to the medic center and get that taken care of – you have five minutes. And you," she spoke to Michi, "and Itachi did not understand when I said aim for the stomach?"

Both of them remained silent.

"Both of you clean up the gym," she commanded of the disobeying students before turning back to everyone else, "everyone else discard your scrolls by the door and prepare for gymnastics practice."

After everyone left she turned back at the two Uchiha's.

"Michi left side, Itachi right side – and here's some wipes to get the blood splats out and put all the kunais in that basket," she said pointing towards a large red woven basket in the corner of the room.

They worked in silence; Itachi was the silent type who enjoyed being alone with his thoughts and Michi was the nervous type when she thought too much.

When they finished collecting all the kunais into the basket and cleaned the floors of any blood residue, the class had returned from the locker rooms where they got a chance to take a quick shower, take in some liquids, and change clothes.

Tamtam gave instructions out before anyone was able to sit themselves down, "Everyone up against the wall in the front of the room by the door."

The students shuffled themselves quickly to the commanded position and stood together as compactly as possible – Michi was next to Kari while Itachi was all the way on the other side.

"What the hell was that about?" Kari whispered into Michi's ear.

"What?"

"You and Itachi, seriously – you two were trying to kill each other and you made everyone else look like amateurs," Kari responded quickly, all her words blending together under her breath.

Michi watched as Tamtam grabbed the large red basket filled with kunais and tugged it with ease to the middle of the room. She, then, sat Indian style in front of the students with her back to the cylindrical basket.

"Really? Didn't notice," Michi lied seconds before the teacher spoke.

"Kari, Ken, Kyo, Kyoko, and Kirari – come to me," all the students made their way out of the crowd.

The teacher did a number of hand symbols and all the kunais from the bowl levitated upwards and created a barrier around her. Another hand symbol caused the number of kunais to triple – whether they were all fake or not, only a handful of students would be willing to beat their lives on that answer.

Everyone remained silent; most of them were slightly terrified. Serious injuries and deaths weren't unheard of in A-Class practices. Teachers seemed to be desensitized to the point of not viewing seven year olds as incompetent children but as targets.

"A physical chakra barrier is set up for those watching, so everyone behind the seal on the floor is safe." At that moment all the children not called by the instructor, glanced around in front of them to see the eight jutsu stickers on the floor which reassured them of their safety.

"Now, when you are called up, the five of you will dodge using the walls, ceiling, floor and whatever else including chakras techniques, abilities, and jutsus. The kunais will fly straight but do not count them out just because they hit a wall or chakra barrier. You get hit with the kunai ten times and you receive level one punishment. Everyone get ready."

The assigned group spread out and Michi kept her eyes on Kari. She activated her Byakugan, and went into the clan's traditional defensive style with both knees bent and both arms locked out in a straight line with lazy wrists.

It should be easy for her, Michi thought.

"Three, Two, One!" The teacher shouted and ten kunai's shot from the barrier around the teacher towards the students. Everyone dodge and the kunai's got stuck on the walls, but then five of them came off and attacked the backs of the students.

Kari and Kyo dodged the kunai's coming behind them by flipping out of the way; the rest got hit in the back.

"Your opponents are not just the ones in front of you!" Tamtam reprimanded, as some kunais from the wall and others from the barrier attacked the students. Everyone was flipping out of the way franticly. Kirari and Ken had crashed into each other and got hit four times because of it.

"Your comrades can become an obstacle, be aware of EVERYTHING!"

Michi was internally cheering Kari on as she danced across the room, using walls to propel her out of the way and escaping every single attack and even dodging her fellow students at times.

Then suddenly after nine minutes, she noticed her best friend's Byakugan disappear and she got hit in the thigh.

"Damnit," Michi heard her best friend curse a string of profanities as she was forced to dodge with only her natural eye sight. She got hit two more times but still did well compared to the rest of the group who had ended up with seven + hits.

"TIME!" The teacher shouted and all the kunai's returned to the barrier. Michi grabbed the medical tape and disinfectant spray each student had to carry in their pockets as her best friend approached.

Kari pouted and muttered some more indecencies as Michi bent over to clean up the Hyuuga's thigh and tape it up, "damnit, I still can't keep the Byakugan active for longer than ten minutes."

"Next up; Itachi, Igi, Enyou, Igor, and Evi." The teacher shouted after the previous group returned.

"You still did better than everyone else," Michi offered after she finished but Kari continued to grovel internally as she crossed her arms on her chest and looked at the next group.

Itachi had activated his Sharingan eyes throughout the entire duration and didn't even get hit once. He had even used Igi's body to propel himself out of the way of a kunai. Igi on the other hand wasn't so lucky – his face kissed the floor, hard.

Eventually the teacher called Tarim who got hit eight times, Lukia and Sukia who got hit six times each, and Michi who was in the last group – got hit only once if you counted the lock of hair that got sliced off and that was without the Sharingan.

"Class dismissed Level One punishment to be distributed for today will meet in this room after school."

Everyone guessed part of the punishment would be clean up – the walls, floors, and ceiling were completely destroyed with Kunai indents and the motif of blood splatters was more horrifying than encouraging for class.

"Ugh, chakra control next…I feel so tired already," Kari muttered as the class exited the gymnasium and walked towards the chakra control room located in the basement.

The twins caught up to both of them as they walked down the hallway, "oh my god, what was that earlier – with the kunai throwing between you and Itachi?" Sukia asked as she fell into step beside Kari. Lukia walked beside Michi, tugging at the new rip on her shirt.

"Nothing, friendly bantering."

"My ass, you were really going at each other," Sukia said, "and then you actually _tried_ during gymnastics class."

"This was the first time real weapons were used," Lukia added to her sister. Any rational person would try not to get hit.

Michi's hands dashed out in front of her Hyuuga friend the moment she lost balance, but Kari caught herself before Michi needed to.

"Are you okay?" The blue haired girl asked keeping her forearm extended for support.

Kari shook her head, "headache, just a headache."

"Let me," Lukia said switching places with Michi and the group moved to the side, allowing the other students to pass them, "mum taught this to us – she uses it on her patients in the spa," she said bringing her hands up to Kari's face and placing her fingers on her temples.

Slowly her fingertips began to glow a light green shade.

"Everything okay?" Tarim asked joining the group from behind.

"Yeah, Lukia is just showing off," her twin commented teasingly.

"Medical jutsu?" The boy asked raising an eyebrow.

"Its low level, but it cures hangover induced headaches like a charm though," Sukia replied watching her sister finish the technique with excellent precision.

"Kari's drunk?" he asked.

"No, I'm not drunk you ass," Kari answered opening her eyes up, "thank you so much Lukia, I feel lots better."

The normally silent twin, smiled at her as Kari intertwined arms with her. Michi let out a breath she was holding and the group made their way down towards the stairs to the basement. From the first floor – the basement was nine floors down. From floor to ceiling the basement was the largest in the academy.

"What groups are you guys in?" Sukia asked as they came to the bottom.

"Michi and I are 1-B," Kari replied.

"I'm 1-D," Tarim answered.

"Ah, sweet, Lukia and I are also in 1-D."

"See you guys," Kari and Michi waved goodbye as they walked further down the hallway. For chakra control the A class students were split up into groups of 6. Each room had a lake, a long tree trunk, a thin long vertical stick, and various strange shapes hanging from the ceiling and horizontally off the walls.

"You sure you're okay?" Michi asked after checking behind her shoulder.

"Mother said headaches are normal as my eyes change."

"Who's our teacher?" Michi asked, changing the subject as they walked down the dark unkempt hallway.

"Tsunade, heard she was forced into this by a lost bet with Jiraiya."

"I heard she has the worst luck."

"Well she has to, you're one of her students," Kari teased.

"Shove it," Michi muttered as she did the hand jutsu to unlock the door.

The rusty door slid open with a rumble and the girls walked into the room where four other children were already kneeling on the dirt ground in front of the instructor who was sitting on a boulder and finishing off something that resembled a sake bottle. The women, who both girls had only seen fleetingly, was beautiful and had the largest chest either of them had seen. The man standing beside her – was seen and known by all…there wasn't a day where rumors of his bathhouse break-ins weren't mentioned. Girls had started calling perverted boys, "Jiraiyas".

"Come in you, brats," the blonde said licking her lips.

"That's not nice, Tsunade – they are young budding ladies who will –", the man sitting behind her was interrupted by a loud smack upside the head from their blonde instructor.

"Take a damn seat," Tsunade said placing the bottle down on the floor and crossed her legs and both girls obeyed; "no need for introductions, I'm Tsunade, that is a dummy and you're all brats. Now we can get started… Jiraiya lie down and take off your shirt."

"Now, I don't think this is the appropriate to do it in front of the children," the pervert said, granting him another by thwack on the side of the head.

"Do. Not." Tsuande warned ambiguously, which caused all her students to look wearily at one another.

"Jeez, okay…okay," he obeyed taking off his Jounin vest, shirt and mesh undershirt. Then he laid down on the floor in between Tsunade and the confused students.

Michi smiled, she really liked Tsunade's straight forward personality while Kari remained indifferent. The four boys in the class cringed, fearing the crazy big breasted woman.

"This is Jiraiya, he is an idiot pervert. You two girls, avoid him…always. And if any of you boys even think about becoming remotely like him," she took out a kunai and threw it into Jiraiya's chest who growled slightly when it pierced his skin. Blood squirted out and everyone's eyes widened, "I will do that, now this is an idiot pervert with a kunai through his chest. Everyone understand?" She actually waited for every one of her students to nod before proceeding.

"As you can tell it didn't go all the way through," she began, "kunai's are like that usually – they are meant to wound not kill by amateurs. As you progress you will find out where the vital organs are so you can do more damage with them…but right now you brats are to view kunais as injuring weapons."

Everyone in the room except Michi was wondering why they weren't being forced to climb walls and walk on water – Michi was wondering what Tsunade would do next.

"Now," Tsunade leaned down and hooked her finger into the hole but before she could pull it out Jiraiya said, "Man that's a sweet view," which caused the woman to twisted the kunai violently into his chest.

"One more word and it will be your balls next," Tsunade pulled out the bloody kunai swiftly, "now he will die if he's not healed in twenty four hours due to the position of the wound and the veins I just severed. If I had bothered to aim at a more important spot he might have anywhere between two seconds and ten minutes. Which is why the knowledge of medical jutsu is important," she placed her hand on the man's wide chest and it glowed a powerful green – his wound healed completely in seconds, "to do something like that could be the difference of life and death, success and failure. It needs excellent chakra control and because some dumbass," she meant the elders, "do not think it's important to have a medic ninja on every team, we have more deaths that needed. So with me, you brats will learn how to at least heal yourself and maybe you could save the life of a fellow brat."

Their teacher stood up as she sighed and she looked at the protégée children before her, only the girl with blue hair had an amused look.

"You with the shorts," she pointed at the boy with the orange spiky hair, "why did I just show you that?"

His eye twitched as he muttered a string of, "umms" and "uhs".

"You, blue hair, why did I just do all that?"

"Partially because Jiraiya pissed you off and because medical jutsu requires the most chakra control out of any jutsu there is."

"Well, isn't she a smarty," the pervert said as the blonde stepped on his fingers.

"Good girl, now come here," Tsunade said stepping over Jiraiya's body, ignoring his superstitious protests that now he would stop growing, and squatted down at the other side of Jiraiya's body and looked at the pig tailed girl approaching, "What's your name girl?" she asked as Michi stood inches away from Jiraiya.

"Michi."

"Okay, brat, here's a kunai," she handed Michi the blood kunai she used to stab Jiraiya earlier.

"Everyone pay attention," she told the class, "if you ever master this, you can climb every tree and dance on top of every damn body of water."

"She just doesn't want to watch you guys climbing all day," Jiraiya replied smugly.

"Stab the bastard," Tsunade told Michi.

"Hey!" Jiraiya protested, "You said you needed me for an example!"

"I am making an example _of_ you, now shut up, brat stab him and everyone else pay attention to his chakra and how it reacts to being stabbed."

"Where do I –"

"Anywhere," Tsunade answered Michi's question before she finished asking.

"But the goods, dear child…when you get older you'll learn that a man's – Owie!" he squeaked when Michi pushed the kunai into his stomach too slowly causing a long string of pain.

"Everyone see how his chakra pattern momentarily pauses? That's his body reacting to the attack. That line of chakra is like his outwardly immune system. Everyone see it?"

A few kids nodded no, Tsunade removed the kunai and handed it back to Michi.

"Everyone get closer," she said putting a hand over the wound Michi inflicted and healing it instantly.

"Tsunade if your lovely bosoms weren't so – " Tsunade snatched the kunai from Michi's hands and stabbed Jiraiya under his naval.

"Everyone see it now? No? Let's do it again," she said so quickly that no one even got a chance to reply as she removed the kunai and healed his injury.

"Tsunade, you know what I said before was a comple –"

"Jiraiya-sama, I think it's best if you shut up," Kari interrupted.

"Look at this, I have brats with some common sense, I like them already. Now does everyone see his chakra pattern?" two boys said no. "To see someone's chakra pattern you have to concentrate not on their flesh but inside the flesh, look beyond the body – it's just like realizing a genjutsu…you have to look beyond just appearances. Chakra pattern is just another way of saying chakra signature…everyone's is different."

"Oh! I see it!" The boy with the glasses squeaked.

"I still can't," the orange haired boy admitted.

"Come here brat," Tsunade said tugging the boy towards her and placed him between her legs with his back to her. Then she put her hands over his eyes, "can you see?"

"N-no."

Her hands began to glow a dark blue, "I don't want you to see right now, but feel, what do you feel?"

"Circles."

"Now?"

"Squares….stars…..clouds…a cat...erh, Jiraiya being hit by a boulder?"

"Good boy, now I'm going to remove my hands and you're going to look at the pervert and tell me what you see."

The boy hesitantly opened his eyes after she removed her hands and gasped, "I see a circulatory system, kind of," he blinked and sighed, "I lost it."

"Don't worry; we have three hours for this."

Tsunade looked down to where she heard a soft grunt to see the brown haired girl trying to activate Byakugan but failing after only a handful of seconds. The older women placed her hand over the girl's head and transferred chakra into her body.

Kari looked up in gratitude as she activated the Byakugan and then looked back at Jiraiya's body.

"With the Byakugan she can see better than most medics when it comes to chakra flow since their clan is so proficient in pressure points. What you guys are just trying to see is the main outline, not the details – just grasp the outline for now."

By the end of the class, and a few unneeded stabs, everyone in the class was able to see the chakra outline of Jiraiya and their peers – they had problems seeing Tsunade's chakra.

"That's because of my," she pointed to the green diamond on her forehead, "it's an extreme dose of concentrated chakra – it makes it difficult to just look at my outline since there's an almost blinding amount up there. Okay, brats, get the hell out of here."

"I like her," Kari said in her decisive tone as they walked out of the class.

"Because you didn't have to spend hours climbing walls?"

"Attempting to climb walls you mean."

"Meh," Michi shrugged as they walked up the stairs.

"Any plans for tonight?"

"Probably getting reprimanded by dad, why?"

"I want to practice kunai throwing; you and Itachi were the best and it kind of…well, pardon if I don't like looking not perfect."

"If dad doesn't disown me for my grade, I'll be over after dinner," Michi replied and both girls waved goodbye as they walked out into the courtyard – to be met by parents.

Michi was about to undo her pig tails when she noticed her dark blue haired mother waiting for her, she squealed internally and dashed through the crowd of exiting students.

"Mum!" She shouted hugging her mum's thigh tightly, being careful to avoid contact with her pregnant belly. Her brother was in there, and she really didn't like the idea all that much anyway.

"Baby, dear, I missed you too," her mother who had dark blue hair and matching eyes smiled warmly at her daughter while patting her on the head.

"Where's dad?" Michi asked finally letting go of her mum.

"Fugaku and daddy were called on a mission after lunch."

Her and Itachi's dad were partners and also the best in the Uchiha clan. If Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi, and the new baby of their family whose name she didn't remember were suddenly killed, her father would be the clan heir.

"Come dear," her mother said as Michi grabbed her hand, "how was class?"

"Alright, my chakra control teacher kicks ass."

"Honey…" her mother warned.

"Kicks butt, sorry."

"You had an exam today didn't you?"

"Yeah…" Michi looked away.

"What did you get?"

"Technically…a hundred."

"And not technically?"

Michi dug into her bag and pulled out a pen and placed it in her mouth as she dug deeper, "here, I didn't get not one question wrong."

"Don't use double negatives in sentences," her mother said as she took the crumbled paper and looked at it with her free hand as they walked down the town street.

"Your father will be really disappointed dear, Taki was right to finally take off more than 5 points."

"I know," Michi said taking the pen out of her mouth and flipping it around her fingers as she looked out on the street, noticing the reason for most of her distress walking a few feet in front of them across the street.

She stopped playing with the pen, uncapped it with her thumb and threw it like a needle straight towards Itachi's left butt cheek. He caught it with his fingers without looking back and twisted it in his fingers, and making sure Michi noticed, when he snapped the pen in two.

It was then Michi realized she threw her favorite purple pen at the asshole.

The young teen walking beside Itachi turned around to look at the little girl who had just thrown a pen at his cousin's behind. Michi noticed his mouth move in the words of, "Who is that?" but the way Itachi was positioned made it impossible to read his lips.

"Dear, let's go into the store, I need to pick up some ingredients…oh and we're having dinner with Mikoto this Friday. She's holding a gathering for us to see the baby, she named him Sasuke. He is just a bundle of cuteness."

"They had a boy?"

"Yes, sweetie, come on now I need to buy milk and eggs."

Michi hoped that she would magically come down with some highly infectious disease like the plague in time for Friday.


	4. Princess

The next day's classes passed by just the same, Itachi tried to kill her during Kunai practice and she returned the favor back to him.

The major shift in the relationship came with the next exam on Wednesday. When Taki handed out the papers, Michi was prepared – she forced herself to feel excited about the exam and readied all her concentration onto it when she began…well almost all her concentration, she glanced across the room at Itachi a few times, making sure she was ahead of him.

When she finished the exam she stood up and Taki's eyes widened as he watched Michi walk towards him and hand the paper in.

Everyone in the room glanced from the blue haired girl to Itachi – he had always finished the exam first…_always_.

"Michi…" Taki began and then shut his mouth; he didn't want to make her feel embarrassed by asking if it's a joke. He grabbed her paper and quickly marked it, "A perfect hundred – about time," he handed it back to her but she didn't meet his eyes, instead she flashed Itachi a smug smirk as she grabbed her paper and walked out of class with an extra skip in her step.

She could swear that the Uchiha boy was plotting her death in his head.

She found that finishing first wasn't so bad; she got to be the only one in the courtyard, meaning she could lay in the grass and watch the clouds pass as she nibbled her sandwich in absolutely no hurry at all. Well that's what would have happened if five minutes later a boy wasn't sanding over her, blocking her view of the cloud that kind-of, sort-of, looked like a rabbit.

Itachi stared at her as if trying to communicate telepathically, and by his expression he was doing a hell of a lot of insulting.

"I think the word you're looking for is princess," she stated with a lazy smile.

He was really noticing her and Michi wanted to giggle at finally discovering something every other female in the Academy was trying to accomplish.

Suddenly a kunai came from his pocket at lightning speed and landed right under her armpit, "you're not worth my time," he said coldly as he turned to walk away.

And those words hurt a lot more than they should have.

She knew love was insanity; she had already punched him, tried to stab him, and why not try to blow him up?

Before she knew it she was doing the hand symbols for fire jutsu release – she blew out between her thumb and index finger at his back. He vanished a millisecond before the fire reached his location and appeared behind her.

His hand extended out into a shoto into the crevice of her neck but she ducked in time and went on her knees to do a sweeping kick to his legs. He did a back flip and evaded.

She grabbed the kunai he had shot earlier at her from the ground and threw it into his stomach. He pulled out another kunai from his pocket and blocked it out of the way and threw the one in his hand at her.

She twisted her body around, evading it and flowing in a spin in such a way that she was able to hook her finger into the moving weapon and redirect it during her spin back at Itachi.

He had dodged it and appeared beside her in lightening speed, placing an excellent side kick to her hip – too bad she was just as fast as him and side stepped his kick and went into a spinning reverse kick aimed at his stupid perfectly shaped head, he ducked down and directed an open palm into her midsection when he straightened up again.

She blocked it with her forearm and shot an inverted kick at the joint on the side of his kneecap, he twisted his leg in the last moment – avoiding the kick completely as he brought a right hook to her face.

She arched her back all the way, evading the attack and continued to arch her back till one of her hands were on the floor and then she placed all her weight on it as her legs shot up doing multiple kicks towards Itachi's chin. He back flipped out of the way, and both of them landed on their feet at the same time.

Three meters away from one another.

At the exact same moment, they begin to do the fire release jutsu hand seals and blew out with such accuracy that they looked like they were mirroring one another in movements. The initial contact was devastating, causing a powerful explosion between them and propelling both their bodies in opposite directions.

Michi's body went straight into the lockers while Itachi's flew into a tree. Neither was able to land perfectly and suffered injury.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!" Iruka, one of the academy teachers for the normal students screamed rushing onto the scene.

Michi groaned, a lock had indented itself into her back and it was probably one of the most unpleasant feelings of the day. She didn't feel the burn marks on her forearms yet.

Another academy teacher had arrived and was standing in front of Michi, trying to help her up.

"Burn marks on her arm, otherwise she looks fine," the man with a five o'clock shadow shouted towards Iruka.

"Same here!" Iruka shouted back as Michi watched him help Itachi up.

"What were you doing?" the unnamed teacher asked, Michi looked up into the man's light green eyes and smiled as she replied innocently, "playing."

The blue haired girl stood up completely and twisted her back from side to side – it really hurt.

"We have to report you, come on," the man said grabbing Michi's little hand. She mused at the size difference as he tugged her along. She turned her head around to see Itachi, cross armed glaring at her as he walked beside Iruka obediently.

"Itachi, follow Mench, I'll go get a nurse," Iruka said disappearing a puff of smoke as the other man directed them towards the Headmaster's office.

He knocked on the door and a raspy, "enter", was heard on the other side. He opened the door and let Michi walk in first, when the old man saw the blue haired girl he sighed and began his usual lecture, "Michi how many times do I have to tell you not to – Itachi? What is going on here Mench?"

Michi and Itachi took a seat in front of the headmaster's desk. He was one of the older ninjas, in his late 40's, but already sporting graying roots and a white beard.

"We found them in the courtyard fighting, both did a fire release jutsu and we found two sharp kunais in the area. One of the locker bays was completely smashed and the tree in the southwest corner of the courtyard suffered major damage and should be dealt with immediately," Mench listed the findings like a robot.

The headmaster lowered the glasses from his face and placed the book that was in his hand down on his rosemary desk as he stared from one Uchiha to the next.

"You're dismissed Mench," the headmaster waved him away.

"Yes sir, Iruka sent for the nurse – they both have burn marks from the explosion."

Silence ensued after the teacher left and the headmaster seemed to asses both students before him.

"I won't ask why…hell I don't care why… Level Three Detention, today after school. I'm sure both your fathers will not enjoy the news."

Michi's face visible fell while Itachi remained expressionless – except for a tiny hint of distaste that was most likely directed at the blue haired girl.

The rest of the day went the same, though, Kunai practice was worse than usual – both had aimed at vital organs only and Michi had almost missed the kunai that was directed into her throat while Itachi had radiated so much hatred that the people next to him took an extra step away. Both their arms were bandaged up, and everyone knew that _something_ had happened and that something had to do with the reason why the courtyard was off limits for 'construction'.

Gymnastic practice was becoming harder and harder as no one was able to escape clean of any damage.

Chakra control with Tsunade was more fun; she usually replenished all her students with her own chakra which not only made everyone feel better but it also made the class go smoothly. The Slug Princess promised next week to start training them on how to expand their chakra reserves. It seemed as though they were not going to be doing any of the conventional chakra control class assignments.

"Michi, don't forget to go to your Homeroom class," Tsunade said before both girls left.

"Professor Taki wants to talk to you?" Kari asked carefully, her best friend seemed totally worn out for some reason and she knew when not to push buttons. She had already heard the rumor of two upperclassmen fighting in the courtyard – putting two and two together wasn't that difficult.

Michi nodded at the Hyuga's assumption.

Then damnation came, Professor Taki remained expressionless as he lead both students into separate rooms on the top floor. Level three punishments was hell, it was a dark room filled with chakra and you had to sit there and try to not die.

The room wouldn't kill you per say, but it would come pretty damn close. Depending on the room you were escorted into, you would feel any array of punishments; being burned, being suffocated, being whipped all over the body, being eaten alive, being squished into the size of a pebble and more….

Ninja's were masochists.

Michi got the room where she felt like she was being squished into the size of a pebble, and Itachi got the burn room. Both remained silent during their punishment, sitting obediently in the middle of the room, exerting as much protective chakra around their bodies as possible to withstand the most damaging aspects of the pain.

An hour later, Taki opened both doors and his students barely shuffled their feet out. Both pausing and leaning against the wall once outside the room to adjust to their new surroundings where they weren't being tortured. After twenty minutes, Taki motioned for them to follow him.

The professor kept a slow pace as his students dragged their bodies behind him; both were drenched in sweat and had depleted all their chakra resources. Michi was silently blessing Tsunade to every deity she knew for replenishing her chakra before class was dismissed.

The stairs posed the most difficult challenge and neither Itachi nor Michi said anything mean to one another as it took nearly a half an hour for both to get down to the first floor.

"Your fathers are waiting outside," Taki said as he opened the door of the academy and let his students out.

Michi wished to go back into the level three punishment room when she saw her father talking with Fugaku. Itachi seemed to feel indifferent as they walked side by side, inches away from touching.

"Itachi, my boy – how was your first punishment?" Fugaku asked his son as he ruffled his sweat soaked hair.

Muigu picked up his daughter in his arms, "so princess, who kicked whose ass?"

Michi expected a lecture, a reprimanding speech, and a possible sleepless night due to her father's own punishment training. She did not expect her father to pick her up in her arms and call her princess – something he hadn't said since she was 4. She was so stunned she couldn't even form coherent words.

"Muigu, don't be ridiculous – my son obviously won, Sharingan and all, right boy?"

"It was a tie," Itachi muttered looking away.

"Looks like my daughter doesn't need the Sharingan to be a challenge to your boy there, eh?"

They began walking; Michi was still cradled passionately in her father's arms. She wondered if she died in the room, and her distorted imagination envisioned her Shinigami to be Taki, and now she was in heaven.

"No, no, I bet my son was a gentleman and didn't use the Sharingan," Fugaku countered as they crossed the street, "right Itachi?" his father asked rubbing his son's neck.

"Yes."

"Looks like we'll need more training," Fugaku continued giving his son a love tap.

"Itachi better watch out once Michi gets her Sharingan," her father nudged his best friend in the arm.

Michi looked out with her blue eyes, in a total stunned daze – she had forgotten what it was like to be treated like a semi-child by her own father. He hadn't even insulted her pigtails yet.

"Well she has some catching up to do. Itachi can hold the Sharingan out for three hours now."

"Don't you worry about that," Muigu replied with a loud hearty chuckle, as both of their children shot each other unreadable looks, "how's the baby doing?"

"Good, Sasuke looks just like his mother and whines just as much."

The men continued to walk together into the Uchiha compound talking about adult things and meetings – Michi and Itachi had no energy to feign curiosity about such matters.

"I'll see you Friday?" Fugaku asked as they said their goodbyes.

"Yes, my wife and I will be there along with this princess."

Michi and Itachi's eyes fell on one another and Michi could have sworn she saw his hand twitch towards his pocket as if to grab a kunai. She reminded herself to ask her father for his kunai – she wasn't going to be caught weaponless next time.

Muigu walked back to their compound still carrying his daughter in his arms, "you did a good job, headmaster told me you did the fire jutsu. He recommended that you switch partners with some other student during kunai practice but both Fuagku and I agreed that was rubbish. Uchiha's stick together."

She wondered if another hour in the Level Three punishment room was worth her father's semi-praise and acceptance.

"We're going to have to start meditating harder to try to make your sharingan awaken itself."

She decided it wasn't.

* * *

A/N: I hope you're enjoying it so far :) Please leave reviews ^^


	5. I am better

The next day, Michi went to class early and without a single complaint in her mind as she fingered the extremely sharp kunai her father had given her after dinner the night before. She carefully hid it in her pocket as she entered the classroom, pig tails and all, and greeted Kari cheerfully.

"Is it true?" Kari said ignoring social protocol.

"That I have yet to be late? Yeap," Michi replied popping the p. She couldn't wait to tell her about how her father called her princess and gave her his sharpened kunai and –

"You and Itachi got Level Three punishment for fighting! You didn't say anything about that yesterday."

"Eh," Michi gave a slight shrug, "sorry," she added sincerely.

"So it was true…you and Itachi were the ones that were fighting yesterday?"

Michi nodded, "keep your voice down."

"Aye," Kari whispered, "sorry…why…are you doing this?"

"If I told you…promise on every delectable sweet on the planet that you won't tell."

"I swear on every delectable sweet and on my honor as a ninja that I won't tell."

"I'm getting Itachi to notice me."

"Michi, you have had a lot of weird plans…you know, training rabbits to do chores, opening your own carnivorous flower shop…I could understand those, somewhat...this…not really."

"I mean…all the girls try to get his attention and fail because –,"

"So you do like him!"

"Do not!" Michi responded automatically as a reflex, "maybe," she added after the girl with the huge sunflower in her hair narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Thought so, well in my opinion I think your plan is –,"

"What plan?" Tarim asked walking in and hoping over his table into his seat.

"Is it another finger paint fiasco the library plan?" Sukia asked walking in with her sister.

"Something even dumber," Kari said, and Michi looked down at her shoes, "Our little Uchiha here wants to sneak out to the zoo after lunch."

"Count me in," Tarim said.

"I was just reminding her what the punishment would be," the Hyuga continued her lie flawlessly.

"Ugh, I keep forgetting about the stupid Level punishments," Sukia said, "they have gotten so mean on us."

"So true – wait! Michi is it true you got punished with Itachi yesterday?" Tarim asked.

Michi nodded, biting her lip slightly.

"What did you and Ittttaaaaaaaaa-maru do last weekend?" Sukia asked, quickly change his name when she saw the object of their conversation walk in.

'Itamaru', Michi mouthed disbelievingly at Sukia who shrugged in retaliation.

"We went shopping," Kari said continuing the lie until Itachi sat down, "he bought a cute stuffed animal and then," she lowered her voice, "honestly all of you are pathetic."

"Blah," Sukia said waving her hand off, "no biggie. But what did you guys do?"

"We had a fight," Michi said.

"Friendly clan rivalry…it's in their blood," Kari added quickly before anyone could assault her best friend for details.

"Is it true that Uchiha's drink the blood of their babies?" Tarim teased and Sukia swatted him the back of his head for it.

Kari directed the conversation into safer grounds – like talking about what a god damn psycho Tamtam was before their homeroom teacher called attention to himself.

"Class, Friday's exam will be cancelled in favor of the Hokage's semi-annual academy visitation." The Hokage visited the Academy at the beginning of every school year and once more for graduation. "This means that Monday's exam will be twice as long but the time frame of three hours will still apply."

A few students groaned.

"Now, please open get your books out. We are covering two lectures today."

Michi grabbed her doodle filled notebook and imagined a few scenes she would like to try. Namely those that had her kicking Itachi's ass.

.

…

.

During their kunai target practice, Tamtam separated the Uchiha's and partnered Michi with the orange haired boy from her chakra practicing class. She still hadn't learned his name due to Tsunade calling everyone brat.

Both Itachi and Michi decreased their skill level to accommodate for their opponents. The next day, they were paired off together again – their fathers would not stand for Tamtam's justifications of how Itachi and Michi were going to kill one another. They needed to live vicariously through their children, _somehow_.

.

…

.

That Friday.

"Michi! Muigu! Come on, we're going to be late," Michi's mum shouted from downstairs.

The blue haired daughter growled at her mother's choice of wardrobe for her. A short light purple kimono with a cloud motif– she had expected to go there with black gi-pants and a tank top along with the kunai her father gave her hanging dangerously on her belt as a warning to a certain Uchiha.

She examined the fabric, if she tried to kick someone, they would get a very appealing glimpse of her panties and she'd be unable to move around as freely because of the elongated and oversized sleeves. With a huff, she tossed her meditation clothes off and stepped herself into the wrenched dress.

"If you two aren't down here this minute, I swear there will be hell to pay!" Her pregnant mother shouted at them.

She heard her father coming down the stairs, "Shhh, honey you'll upset the baby with that attitude."

"MICHI!" her father screamed so his wife wouldn't.

She let out another loud huff as she tied the stupid obi behind her as best she could, insulting the dress wordlessly every way she knew how to. Then she grabbed her kunai and placed it strategically inside her bow as she rushed downstairs.

"Dear, you look wonderful," her mother complimented her as she fixed her child's hair and straightened out the short kimono, "come now, do you have the presents, love?"

"Yes, all three," her father replied grabbing three small perfectly wrapped boxes. One of them was the gift she got for Sasuke – a stuffed bear. She had wanted to get it for herself but when her mother said she was too young to be playing with toys, she countered by saying she wanted to give it to the new baby.

Michi's mother grabbed her hand as they walked out into the darkness together. They walked along the street towards Fugaku's house which was on the other side of the compound. It only made sense to spread out the nobility level of the Uchiha clan since having them all in a condensed area like the Hyuuga clan would cause a distinct separation between families. And Uchiha's didn't separate themselves that way, they separated themselves through level of skill and rank in their police force. It just so happened that the main families nurtured their children to run before they could walk and throw kunais before they could talk and were often rumored to disown the weak to keep their own blood strong.

They approached the large mansion surrounded by a well kept garden, the lights were on and soft violin music was heard from inside.

Muigu knocked on the door loudly and Mikoto opened up with a wide smile as she ushered them in. She was a tall woman who still carried a little bit of the extra post pregnancy fat on her but the beauty of her body was not lost in the excess weight. Her onyx eyes were warm and welcoming, and her black hair accented her pale skin. Michi could see tiny traces of Itachi on her, but most of Itachi was in his father.

Mikoto hugged everyone as they walked in and even bent down to pick up Michi, "oh my, you little thing you, I haven't seen you in so long!" she planted a kiss on Michi's cheek before settling her back down.

"Can I see the baby?" Michi's mother asked.

"Of course, Haru, come on."

"I'll put the gifts over here," Michi's father said as he placed the gifts down near the rest and walked over to Fugaku and other Uchiha adults as the two women went to play with the baby.

Michi looked completely lost and helpless as both her mother and father were busy with other activities that didn't include her. Sometimes it sucked to be seven and be treated like you were seven.

She walked through the wide rooms trying to find something to catch her eye. Each one was decorated to the t, and Michi spent some time admiring a painting that hung on the wall of the dining room. Her mother and Mikoto had both invested a lot of money into art from the East and while Haru took a liking to portraits and abstract art, Mikoto preferred landscape.

"You like it?" A soft spoken voice asked and Michi jumped, startled to see a familiar face.

She recognized him as Shisui, Itachi's best friend and cousin – he was there at one of her birthday parties. She recalled that he got her a journal that she had been very fond of.

"Hey, and yea. It's very nice," Michi replied looking back at the oil painting of a waterfall a luscious green jungle.

"It's my favorite in the house, my mum painted it for Mikoto's birthday a few years ago."

"Oh?" Michi asked surprised, she thought it was one of the purchased pieces, "Your mums a good painter," she added politely.

"Heh, she's many things," he replied slyly, "So you're in Itachi's class?"

"Why? Does he talk about me that much?" She countered smugly.

"Actually not by normal standards but by his, he does – more than anyone else."

That caught her of guard causing a blush to spread, but then he added, "I've never heard such nasty comments about a person come out of his mouth before."

Her eyes narrowed at the news, "I've called him some names that I wouldn't repeat in front of a priest either."

"Haha, how are your classes going?"

"They're going," she answered defensively.

"Favorite class?"

"Chakra control."

"Really? How come?"

"Tsunade is our teacher, she's really cool."

"Hah, when I was seven my favorite classes were the lectures – it was the most relaxing time. When your eight they split the lecture classes up, so you get different sections that was a drag," the older boy sighed reminiscing, "Itachi's favorite is kunai practice for some reason…can't figure that one out. But kunai practice only lasts three months I think, then you guys move on to sherikins right?"

Michi nodded, looking back at the painting.

"Come on, let's go in the backyard, most of the kids are back there. The parents here are about to get drunk real soon and start singing. That's something to avoid, especially if it's my dad – glass will shatter."

The younger Uchiha let out a soft giggle before offering the older boy a friendly smile, "I'll be there in a few, I just want to go see the baby."

"Alright, see you there blue-eyes."

Michi raised her eyebrow at his nickname for her but before she could say anything he disappeared in a gust of wind. She quickly moved towards the crowd of adults standing around with champagne and whisky glasses towards where her father dropped off the presents. She grabbed the one with the pink wrapping paper – everyone else used blue since he was a boy. She made her way to the bathroom.

After washing her hands thoroughly – she read somewhere that a little babies immune systems are really weak – she made her way towards the new born's room. The door was left ajar, and she pushed it open a bit more before stepping inside.

She grabbed the stepping stole that Itachi probably used when looking at the baby and put it in front of the crib. After tearing the top of the wrapping paper, and opening the box, she pulled out the dark blue teddy bear in a black sweater with the Uchiha symbol on its back; her mother had made the sweater as an added gift. Michi stepped onto the stool and looked over the cradle.

The baby was staring up at her with open eyes. It looked so ugly, like a cross between a naked chipmonk and…something unidentifiable. Michi hoped that she didn't look like that as a child. But then the baby smiled, and it kind of…sort of – looked cute for an Uchiha boy.

Itachi was walking through the hallway after giving Mikoto her shawl – Fugaku had turned on the air conditioner and he had seen his mother let out a slight shiver since the short black dress was inadequate material at staying warm. He paused when noticed Sasuke's door opened wider than how he last left it. He walked towards it and sensed a familiar presence. Silently he stepped inside to see Michi in a purple kimono leaning over his brother's crib, holding a teddy bear in her hand.

"Hi there, Sasuke. My name's Michi! My dad and your dad are close friends. Your mum is really nice and pretty. Your brother hates me, but he's an idiot, okay?"

Itachi's eye twitched; he made a mental note to keep her the hell away from his little brother.

"This is a teddy bear, I picked him out. Daddy gives me an allowance and I saved up. I like teddy bears but my folks say I'm too old. So you should have one while you can – alright? Oh, and look," she turned the bear around and showed the back of the bear to Sasuke, "see that, that's an Uchiha symbol. It means power and stuff. Actually I'm not sure what it means, but you're raised to be powerful and stuff so it might as well mean that. Right?" The baby tilted its tiny head to the side as she continued speaking; its eyes on the stuffed animal that she seemed to be holding like a donkey's carrot stick.

"You're a boy, so remember to be nice, especially to girl Uchiha's because it sucks being girls in this family. You're lucky to be a boy and all anyone ever wants are boys, so when you grow up you're going to have to want girls, okay?" Michi sighed softly, even she realized the stupidity of her babbling, "Anyway, when you get older you'll get the Sharingan. Don't rush for it – I don't think it's much fun. I don't have it yet but I don't want it either. Here you go; you can sleep with the teddy." She handed the teddy bear to Sasuke who took it with open arms. "Oh, when you get old enough you're going to have to name him, okay? But you just can't name him pickles because I don't like pickles or olives – because olives are gross. I'm going to go now, babies need their sleep, so good night Sasuke – I'll visit again later."

Michi slowly tried to get off the stepping stool, but tripped over the back of her kimono and was about to fall on her behind – but someone saved her…again.

She glared at Itachi who held her in his arms.

"I'll punch you," she threatened, and he let go of her. She landed on her butt with a soft thud, muted by the thick carpet in the room.

"Hn," Itachi breathed out as a smirk graced his face watching Michi give him a dirty look. He walked out of the room without saying another word.

They didn't see each other again that night.

.

…

.

The weekend, Michi was on house arrest by her father. Training. Training. Training. Because she _had_ to awaken her Sharingan.

By the time her father was kind enough to end the torture; Michi was too exhausted to have dinner and went straight to sleep. Only to be awakened by the sound of crashing dishes, she was out of her room, and jumped out of the second floor balcony that overlooked the living room and rushed to her mother who was bent over in pain. Her father held her tightly.

"Mum?" Michi asked wide eyed.

"We're going to the Uchiha infirmary, Michi go to Yuhumaru and ask him to send for Tsunade," her father said in a one of the deepest and most commanding voices she had ever heard.

She was momentarily frozen in fear till her mother screamed again.

"GO!"

Michi nodded and stumbled in her pajamas over her own feet as she rushed out the door to go wake up their neighbors so they could get Tsunade – one of the few none Uchiha medics allowed on the compound.

.

…

.

She had spent the night in the waiting room area of their infirmary dozing in and out of sleep, panicking when she jolted awake, and being ashamed that she wanted sleep when her mother was in some sort of trouble. Silently, in the dark corners of her mind – she didn't mind if her unborn brother wasn't going to come out. She didn't want him to come out. She didn't want a brother. She didn't want her parents to have a son.

"Michi," the drawling voice of Yuhumaru knocked her out of her daze and she jumped to her feet in alarm, "let's go…school starts soon for you."

"Bu-but my mum?"

"She's fine, the Slug Princess is with them and," he paused and at that moment realized that the blue haired girl before them was seven, "and telling them all this medic mumbo jumbo, everything's absolutely fine."

Michi had been treated like an adult too often to believe a lie, but she had also been around adults often enough to know that they didn't like having their lies called out so she nodded meekly and followed the man out.

.

…

.

Michi's mind was slightly preoccupied as she came into class, a second before Professor Taki cleared his throat, she had a feeling that he was stalling long enough for her to get there.

During the painfully long exam, the girl's mind was plagued with more personal questions than shinobi questions and she had to reread a few problems due to them not registering in her mind the first time around.

Itachi finished first – something Michi wanted to prevent but she still had five questions to go. She mumbled profanities under her breath as she tried to force herself to complete the stupid exam.

When she finished the it, and got her hundred, she waited outside the classroom for her friends to finish because she needed the company of her friends.

Kari was the sixth out, and took a seat beside Michi who stood leaning against the wall with a dazed expression on her face.

"So?" Kari asked looking up at her best friend.

"Something's wrong with my mum or my mum's baby."

"How are you feeling?" She muttered leaning her head against Michi's thigh as an offering of comfort.

"Confused, part of me is…glad, another part of me is angry at being glad."

"Any other parts?"

"Maybe, we never had a class on properly compartmentalizing emotions," Michi added sarcastically.

"I'll put a request in to the headmaster," Kari said getting a soft laugh from Michi, "don't feel bad…I've heard how rough the Uchiha broads have it…if I were you, I wouldn't want a brother either."

"Yeah, but not wanting to have a brother and wanting for the brother not to," the Uchiha carefully choose the next word, "survive the process of coming to existence are two different things."

"You don't want him to come into existence," Kari said using Michi's words, "because that will make your existence obsolete in the family?"

"Kind of…I mean, when I visited Itachi's brother…all I could think was if I was a guy, I wouldn't mind having a little brother. It would be nice."

"But you're not a guy, you're body is going to go through puberty and grow hair in unpleasant places and your boobs will swell and your uterus will bleed out of your vagina every month."

"I wonder if you're the reason Tarim isn't into chicks."

"Har, har," Kari said flashing her best friend a dirty glare, "I'm just stating the facts, you aren't a guy and once puberty sets in…it will be more evident."

"Ugh," the Uchiha replied sliding down the wall, Kari leaned away, and Michi placed her head on her best friend's shoulder.

"You'll be okay."

"Yeah…I just wish…this baby's birth didn't steal everything from me," Michi closed her eyes, "I just don't want to have to get married to belong…I want to belong to my family…to my daddy…he called me princess last week…I want that."

"So don't get married," Kari replied and activated her Byakugan suddenly, "Lukia is handing up her test."

"I don't want them to know."

"They won't," she assured returning to her hazel eyes.

.

…

.

Michi's father picked her up from school that day in his Uchiha Police Chief uniform, and greeted her by insulting her pigtails. She looked at her feet as she removed her rubber bands from her hair.

"How's mummy?" she asked after they were a good distance away from the school.

"Fine," her father replied placing his large hand on her pig-tailless head, "Tsunade has placed her on bed rest this week and placed her on a strict regime."

"The baby's okay?" Michi asked with zero emotion in her voice.

"He will be okay," her father said in the way that left no room for argument.

Michi nodded, emotions boiling inside her that she didn't understand. The baby was going to take her father away.

.

…

.

The next day, Michi had stayed close to Kari as often as possible, leaning on the girl any time she could and the Hyuga remained strong while her best friend suffered silently.

On Wednesday Michi had pinched her thigh every time her thoughts wandered to her personal problems and was able to go about the exam at a relatively quick pace. Unfortunately, when she pulled her chair out from under the desk the other Uchiha in the class did the same.

Both eyes connected and a second later – only a few were able to follow their movements – they appeared before Professor Taki with their exams extended to him.

"Oh, my…impressive," the teacher said, diplomatically accepting both exams at the same time. He checked Michi's first page first, then Itachi's first and the second page, then Michi's second and third page, and so forth because he knew how teacher's showing favoritism would place unneeded fuel into the already burning rivalry or competition or…Taki's yellow eyes glanced at both expressionless Uchiha's and concluded that it was neither of those but something else…he looked back down.

"Perfect scores, for the both of you."

His student's snatched their papers back at the same time and turned away towards the door. Even though Itachi wanted nothing more than to slam the girl's face into the door – he was brought up an Uchiha and Uchiha's were brought up to be chivalristic to clanswomen and so he opened the door and held it for her. She looked at him wearily before passing through, her hand inside her pocket, finger hooked to her father's kunai and ready for any sudden movements.

He followed behind her as she walked down the hall – he was prepared for any sudden movements as well.

"You know," she began and his eyes traveled from her hand which was in her pocket to over her shoulder, "I think I'm better than you."

"Hn," that was hilarious – she didn't even have her Sharingan yet and she wanted to believe that _she_ was better than him? Pure insanity.

"I am better," she stated it as a fact.

"Your opinion," he began, "is comical at best."

"I punched you in the face once, unless you forgot," she spun around quickly but Itachi was prepared and his own father's kunai was out to block her attack.

"That was because I had mistaken you for a well-mannered girl. I promise the same mistake shall never be repeated again," he said, his other hand coming up from under with a hidden kunai ready to slice her in half, but she, being an Uchiha and trained properly, had back flipped out of the way.

"Ahem."

Both heads turned to Iruka, standing between them. "Would you two like to assist me in organizing the library books?"

They had hidden their kunais immediately, but knew he had seen them, and also knew that his question wasn't _really_ a question.

So they followed, silently, and carefully keeping a punching and kicking distance away from each other.

"These are the items need to be returned to their original place." He pointed to three carts of scrolls and books. "Scrolls are in the eastern side, arranged alphabetically by subject. Books are to be placed in the western side organized alphabetically by genre and by then by author name."

Both students nodded in understanding.

"I will be back in an hour, if either one of you starts a fight there will be dire consequences. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they responded in unison.

"Good," the teacher disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Michi sighed and picked up two books from the closest cart, "might as well take our time," she said walking towards the fiction books section.

"Hn," Itachi said reaching for a handful of scrolls.

They worked silently for a half an hour, till Michi noticed Itachi turn over a book curiously to read the back description. She cocked her head sideways to read the title on the spine.

"Larimo's Blue Oceans was his best work," she said offhandedly.

"No it wasn't," Itachi said before realizing what he was doing and quickly reached for another book from the cart.

"Yeah, it sucked…so that means you've read his other novels," she said with a smirk.

Itachi grinded his teeth at the trap he had fallen in and shot her a deadly glare, "congratulations," he said bitterly.

"I like him too, and his wife writes some interesting things too," Michi continued trying to keep a conversation going. She had to start transcending his feelings from wanting to kill her to tolerating her presence…some of the time.

"Hn," he replied turning around to place the two books in his hands back on their respectful shelves.

So that some time wasn't today. She shrugged off her apparent failure and reached for one of the larger scrolls.

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**A/N:** Please review if you are still enjoying this story :). It seems that I'm not getting any and unfortunately am losing the motivation to write this. :(


	6. Exams and Apologies

The following months blended in together. She began hating being home more and more – when her father wasn't preparing the new baby room he was insulting his daughter offhandedly. Muigu would never realize how his comments hurt his child because it was how he was raised and how his father spoke to his sister; he didn't know better.

Michi concentrated more and more on her classes – trying to be the first done on exams; it seemed to be a tie more often than not. She was becoming an expert at Kunai tossing; Tamtam had set up 4 man teams together. 3 on one side, one another. The three would throw kunais at the one person, and that person was supposed to either dodge or catch them with the board. It was a physical show of how she felt inside, a single person being attacked by all angles.

Michi discovered, thanks to her chakra class, that she had no future as a medic nin. She could only heal pathetic scrapes and was the reason for most of Jiraiya's abdominal scars. Tsunade had made him come in every single day, something about he deserves to suffer with her for something that happened in Earth Country involving a loofa, hooker, a million dollar vase, and a diplomatic crisis.

Eventually it was time for the mid-semester exams that every student dreaded. The written portion of the exam was easy to Michi – the real trouble came with the sparing portion since some council members came as witnesses. The blue haired girl hated being scrutinized, judged, and compared.

Michi was made to spar Kyo, a fiery red head boy whose greatest attribute was his lightning enhanced sword. The female fighter quickly realized how hard lightening firing from a sword would be to dodge. She had to end the fight quickly.

She had managed to paralyze the chakra in his arms– being best friends with a Hyuuga had its benefits, and he was forced to drop the sword and without metal to conduct his electricity he had no choice but to forfeit. Of course Michi had sacrificed her shoulder and forearm in the process – completely dislocating both.

When Tsunade came up to her, to heal the damage she was shocked that she was able to simply reconnect the joints with a soft tug. That was when Tsunade had realized Michi's valuable joint manipulation that would eventually make her an almost possible target to hit and an excellent taijutsu fighter but both of those would come later as the sanin kept her new discovery to herself.

Michi was declared the winner by 8 out of 9 judges….one of them being Itachi's father who clapped his hands at her performance. She wished it was her own father clapping for her, but he was busy…with the room….with the baby. _Stupid baby. _

The next part of the test involved random exams dictated by 3 elders.

An old lady asked for chakra control, eyeing Tsunade who stood behind Michi next to Taki and Tamtam.

"How often do you practice climbing trees and walking on water with Tsunade?"

"Erhm, we never have, but Tsunade-sensei explained the process" Michi replied honestly.

She heard the elder's murmur and the council witnesses looked from one another silently but her teacher interrupted their vocalization and thoughts of doubts, "And I bet she will be able to do the task better than all the other students."

"Very well, go on the ceiling Michi," the elder woman said waving towards the wall to the left of her.

Michi recalled Tsunade's lessons of placing chakra into various body parts and said if you wanted to run faster, to put bursts of chakra on the soils of the feet or if you wanted to walk up walls to concentrate an even amount all over the surface of the foot or sole of the foot – depending on the situation.

She concentrated an even amount all over her foot as she approached the wall slowly, and easily she was able to climb it sideways and made her way to the ceiling. Hanging upside down while the judges wrote something down, she winked towards her blonde teacher who stared triumphantly at the older women.

"Remain there, while we ask your teachers some questions," an elder Michi didn't know the name of said.

"How are Michi's test scores Taki?" the youngest council member, probably in his early thirties asked.

"She has never gotten a wrong question," he answered much to Michi's delight.

"What is her highest number of hits taken, Tamtam, with her gymnastics?"

"She got hit six times once, the rest have been four and under. She had a perfect score twice," replied stoically.

"How is she with the kunai?" One of the other women asked.

"Excellent, her partner is Itachi – they both excel exceptionally well."

"Michi," Fugaku called her name.

"Yes, sir?"

"Do you have a kunai in your pocket?"

"Yes, sir."

"You see the fly by the plants in the back?"

Michi looked around while still hanging upside down, "yes, sir – I see two."

"Hit the one that's just left the pink flower petal."

"Yes, sir," Michi said taking out her father's kunai and with one swift fluid motion, without getting into the proper stance, she shot the kunai out at the fly – nailing it perfectly.

"Good job, Michi," he complimented her as a soft whisper of praise escaped a few others.

Michi continued to remain upside down, never having realized how easy it was.

"Tsunade, what does she excel in when it comes to chakra control?" the old woman who had seemed displeased with the blonde teacher asked.

"Nothing really, she's kind of decent in everything but she does notice small distinctions in others chakra outlines easily. She sensed my partner coming into the building while she was in the basement."

"You say she doesn't excel with anything…but so far she has remained the longest on the ceiling out of all the tested students and her legs are not trembling," one of the middle aged men commented.

"Then you will surely be impressed with my other students," Tsunade countered smugly.

Michi wasn't hurt or insulted by Tsunade's words, one thing that you could count on by the blonde teacher was complete and utter honestly. The girl had failed at nearly every single healing technique the sanin taught them and was only slightly above average in personal chakra distribution. When healing a centimeter deep wound on Jiraiya she made a scar that looked like a ten inch stab wound – she was sure she had no place in the medic field but she was not going to discard Tsunade's teachings. Plus, she thought her teacher was pretty bad ass for talking back to the counsel.

Suddenly Michi felt something come at her back and she quickly placed a burst of chakra at the balls of her feet and propelled herself to the west wall and when she landed she bent her legs and flipped over and around back to the same spot on the ceiling – where a kunai had landed.

Tamtam had thrown it.

"Excellent job, Michi – your father will be pleased," Fugaku said as he dismissed her.

She flipped down to the ground and bowed at the council members. On the way out she flashed a peace sign to her teachers. Tamtam's lips edged into a slight smile in return and Taki had given her thumbs up while Tsunade stuck her index finger under her eye and tugged it down – sticking out her tongue at her student at the same time. Only Tsunade….

.

…

.

Although her father claimed to be proud of her mid-semester and her final-semester exam results, his pride began to weigh heavily on her lack of Sharingan ability – most of the kids in the Uchiha family by her age had either died from rejection or activated it. Michi was fine not being in either category.

After a grueling six hour meditation session with her father, she snuck out her window with a kunai and a stack of sherikin in her pajama bottoms and went to the park inside the compound.

She had to get away.

Had to.

Her mother was due anytime now, and school break was only a few days away since the final exams were coming to a close. She had hoped that she would have school to hid away from her new brother but now it looked like that wouldn't happen.

With a sigh, she sat on the bench in the park area that separated the north and south compounds. She looked up at the stars – enjoying just being and existing and the feeling of alone without the loneliness. The chilling winter air brought goose bumps to her body and the fog she created with her warm breath looked like magic to her. An hour of bliss passed and before she lost control and dozed off. She only woke up to the feeling of someone approaching her, her hand with the sheriken shot out to the intruder before her eyes opened to see who it was.

When she did blink the sleepiness out of her eyes, she saw Itachi standing five meters away from her with his hand by his throat holding a sheriken that was aimed at his jugular. Michi gasped as she sat up quickly, noticing the blood stream down his palm.

She was shocked, she had just injured someone who wasn't an enemy – she wasn't awake or mentally functioning enough to remind herself that it was Itachi or else she would have otherwise brushed it off. But at that moment it didn't matter that it was Itachi…the act of messing up…again. Not being good enough. Again. Doing something wrong. Again. Her fragile seven year old mind could barely handle that.

She got up and rushed towards him, he was still slightly startled by her but refused to react when she grabbed his hand into hers, "I can fix this, I can fix this…I can do it…I can do it," she muttered over and over as she pulled out the sheriekin, dropped it to the ground and made her hands glow with medical chakra as she tried to heal his wound. But instead she distorted the skin in an attempt to close it – the wound was not deep, he had stopped the momentum of the shurikin with his fingers but they were not long enough to keep two of the blades from going into his palm. The down side with practicing with the board was that you got used to it being there. The next semester they were going to learn to stop weapons without it.

"I'm sorry….I'm sorry," Michi began to cry, not really knowing why she was repeating the apologies she made to her father when he asked why she couldn't activate the Sharingan, "I'm doing my best – I swear," she sobbed as her green medic chakra faltered and disappeared, "I can't do it," she looked up into Itachi's onyx colored eyes and felt a familiar condescending look and her body moved on its own, running as far away as possible from him.

Itachi watched her retreat away from the park and in the direction of her home; he had come out for a stroll and heard her crying out in a dream. But when his foot snapped a fallen branch, she had woken and with ninja-honed reflexes attacked him. He didn't blame her…well partially he did, it was her fault for being in such a deep sleep out in the open. But her reaction and the fear and shame in her eyes were unexplainable to him. She seemed in a daze, as if she was speaking to someone else – half there, half gone.

He looked down at his bloody palm and wiped it off on his pants to examine what the end result was. She had closed the wound and created a small swirl of skin around the two puncture wounds – her healing had done more damage to his skin than if she had let it heal on its own. He didn't bother taking it to a real medic – he decided he was okay with the new scar.

Before he left the area he picked up the sheriekin she had thrown at him before, off the ground and into his pocket. A memento of some sort.

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**A/N:** Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed and please review. Cheers :)


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